Good Morning Atlanta
An eerie bluish sunrise played across Atlanta Metro, the taste and smell of chlorine giving way to burning eyes, sore throats and headaches. Residents began lighting up social media with their concerns. Shortly after 9 a.m., Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced that Fire Rescue would begin testing air quality.
Without official guidance, news media relayed details of Rockdale County’s stay-at-home order to the rest of the metro. But there was no data about air quality, or orders from city and county governments, forthcoming Monday morning. Despite a lack of data, some businesses went virtual while mommy groups mobilized to shut down outdoor activities at area schools.
Social media, as usual, rose to fill in the void. Some accounts recommended that residents don N95 respirators and use HEPA air filters at home. They were shouted down by citizen scientists, who said authoritatively that those filters couldn’t stop tiny chlorine gas molecules.
What they didn’t realize was that it was more than just chlorine — particulates from the fire, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide were also identified. But no one knew for sure what was in the air, because the exact chemical composition of the toxic cloud remains BioLab’s “proprietary formula.” It would take days for Georgia Tech Professor Dr. Sally Ng of ASCENT to settle the argument, recommending that N95 repirators and use HEPA filters whenever they smelled chlorine, to filter out other mystery chemicals.
Air quality measurements started trickling in by Monday afternoon from Georgia Tech, Emory University and the City of Atlanta. While the pollution was within safe levels, they couldn’t test the toxicity of the gases. But chlorine, officials noted, “has a very low odor threshold,” meaning that you can usually smell it before it becomes dangerous.
Mayor Dickens and most news outlets, out of “an abundance of caution,” suggested sheltering in place “if you are concerned.” But they never made an official call.
At 1:40 p.m. Monday, the eerie wail of the Emergency Alert System echoed across a nerve-wracked Metro Atlanta, emanating from hundreds of thousands of cell phones. It was less than comforting: “Chemical levels are UNLIKELY TO CAUSE HARM TO MOST PEOPLE.”
According to WSB-TV Channel 2, by Oct. 3, “the Georgia Poison Center has taken nearly 700 calls about the Biolab fire since it began Sunday morning … with symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine.”
BioLab, a subsidiary of KIK Consumer Products, manufactures swimming pool and spa chemicals under the brand names BioGuard, Natural Chemistry and SeaKlear, among others. They have a long history of contamination events.
In 2004, an eerily similar accident at the same facility caused evacuations in Rockdale County, impacting local waterways and correlating with health issues into North Georgia. They were fined $24,000. According to 11Alive Atlanta, they’ve been fined a total of $67,000 since 2004, in part for toxin releases in 2011, 2017 and 2020, as well as at least 18 major safety violations.
That may not seem like much, but it beats the $2,500 (no typo) fine levied on BioLab’s Lake Charles, Louisiana, plant for an accident earlier this year. That was the fourth accident in five years at BioLab’s Louisiana facility, including a 2020 fire that led to a nationwide shortage of pool chemicals.
Despite this problematic history, BioLab received tax breaks to help pay for a 2019 expansion at the Conyers facility. Georgia is, after all, the Number One State for Business! And, to be fair, it is Rockdale County’s top employer, with close to 500 employees. If BioLab is shut down, those jobs (and the tax base) will be difficult for the county to replace.
BioLab’s parent company, which purchased KIK Consumer Products from Chemtura in 2014, is Centerbridge Partners L.A., valued at $32 billion. Fines of $67,000 over 20 years are almost certainly less of a concern than the costs of maintaining safe, secure plants.
According to The American Prospect, a news outlet rated factual but strongly biased, reports that after the 2020 BioLab accidents, KIK and Centerbridge “ratcheted up [BioLab’s] debt load to line its own pockets” to the tune of $850 million. The article also suggests that they’ll be able to use this accident to make money for investors.
That might have been true if the toxic plume had only affected rural Georgia, as usual. But thanks to Helene scrambling area wind patterns, Atlanta — and its residents with wealth and power — were adversely affected. Which means that there will be consequences.
Even toxic clouds have a silver lining
As the week wore on, it became clear that BioLab couldn’t stop the chemical reaction pouring its proprietary blend of chlorinated chemical irritants into the air. As workers scooped out the smoldering chemicals, water reactivated the next layer.
On Oct. 3, media reported that chlorine levels at the disaster site spiked overnight, prompting Rockdale County to extend evacuation and shelter-in-place orders. The plume was forecast to cover Atlanta Metro until Sunday at least.
But something else was in the air — change. Atlanta-based Stewart Miller Simmons Trial Attorneys is filing a class-action lawsuit, while massive Morgan & Morgan is considering options. Both recommend that everyone affected keep a journal of their families’ symptoms, such as sore throat, stinging eyes, rashes, headaches and nausea, including the date and time.
Congressman Hank Johnson (GA-4) is calling for BioLab’s closure. State lawmakers have scheduled a public hearing for Oct. 8, which will include “the Rockdale County House and Senate Delegations, along with the Minority House Caucus and DeKalb County Delegation members.”
BioLab, which has never gotten this much attention, launched a Community Resources Page to help Conyers residents on Oct. 5, including debris pickup. Large chunks of the mysterious proprietary mix fell on the city in the early days of the disaster. Rockdale County has released guidelines recommending that gardeners and farmers refrain from eating affected produce (including eggs) and destroy animal feed exposed to the chemical plume.
Metro Atlanta counties have not followed suit. A General Mills cereal factory 15 miles southeast of the plant is in Newton County and was not affected by shutdown orders.
At press time, Atlanta smells a bit less like a pool house, although this writer still has a sore throat. Rockdale County officials reopened schools on Monday and lifted the shelter-in-place recommendation except for a two-mile radius around the plant, which suggests the cleanup is almost completed.
Public trust has been deeply eroded by this event.