WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Tommy Yang - In wake of the recent horrifying fire at a chemical plant in Conyers, Georgia that forced tens of thousands of local residents to evacuate, a local environmental activist from a neighboring city named Brunswick explained to Sputnik why those cities struggled to transition away from those traditional heavy industries despite public health concerns.
When a massive fire broke out at a chemical plant owned by BioLab, a company specializing in producing swimming pool and spa water care products, in late September, over 90,000 local residents living in the nearby areas were ordered to evacuate as a plume of dark smoke filled the air with chemical smell.
The emergency management agency in Georgia said chemicals released from the recent fire included chlorine, chloramine, and chlorine compounds that may cause irritation to the skin and mucous membranes, including the eyes, nasal passages, and respiratory system. People exposed to these compounds that have preexisting conditions are more likely to develop symptorms.
Unprepared for Fire
While this was not the first time a chemical plant owned by BioLab caused such dangerous fires, similar hazardous fires have broken out at other plants owned by various chemical producing companies in neighboring cities in Georgia in recent years.
The city of Brunswick, located about 300 miles southeast of the BioLab plant, has experienced at least two major fires at local chemical plants that triggered similar mass evacuations in the past two years.
Rachael Thompson, the executive director of the Glynn Environmental Coalition, explained to Sputnik why local authorities in Georgia appeared to struggle to deal with such disasters involving chemical plants in the region.
"The Pinova fire definitely raised a lot of questions. The part that really surprised people when there was a fire is that they didn’t have any firefighting staff. They had no firefighting equipment and no staff that were prepared to fight a fire. Their protocol if something caught on fire was to call a 911, and get out of the way," Thompson told Sputnik.
The incident Thompson mentioned took place in April 2023, when the facility, operated by a local chemical manufacturer named Pinova, caught on fire and forced local officials in the Glynn County to issue an evacuation order. Brunswick is the county seat of the Glynn County.
What shocked the environmental activist more was the fact that the local fire department appeared to be equally unprepared to deal with such large-scale industrial fires.
"Then we were talking to the fire chief of the fire department:’ Okay, do you have the resources to fight an industrial fire of this magnitude?’ No, they don't. How do we put this fire out? The fire chief said:’ We have to call Jacksonville or Savannah,’ which is over an hour away. Afterwards, there was an outcry or sheer shock and frustration, because, as a community, we’re sitting here like:’ What do you mean? This was your plan? No one was prepared?’ We’re very lucky that no one lost their lives in that fire," Thompson said.
The facility was so severely damaged in the fire that Pinova decided to permanently close the chemical processing plant in Brunswick and was expected to complete the full decommission in December 2024, the company said in a statement in December last year.
A similar hazardous fire broke out at a chemical plant operated by a company named Symrise in November 2022, forcing local officials to order an evacuation around the 3-mile radius from the facility.
Thompson blamed the environmental agencies in Georgia for failing to fulfill their duties.
"I have to admit that that I haven’t really been following what’s been happening in Conyers [where the BioLab fire took place]. But I guarantee you it’s the same story, because that's the kind of environmental leadership that we have in this state. There are some parts of our state government that work really well. But the emergency response when it comes to industrial activity, or environmental permitting, or environmental compliance, or environmental regulation, it is so poor. And it does not protect the people," she said.
Economic Void
Nevertheless, the environmental activist acknowledged that it would be difficult for cities like Brunswick to shut down all the chemical manufacturing plants because those companies had been a major contributor to the local economy.
"I do think that if you were to ask people:’ Should we get rid of them?’ They would be like:’ Oh, yes, absolutely.’ But the reality of the situation is that it's not going to happen. Brunswick has a long history of being a somewhat industrially driven town," Thompson said.
The activist went on to explain how important companies like Pinova were to the local communities in Brunswick.
"Pinova shutting down after their fire in April last year was really a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that the facility that discharged to the air and the water, contaminated the soil and the groundwater, was shutting down after 112 years of operation. There's like a sigh of relief within the community. But the downside of that is the economic piece, because it was one of the biggest taxpayers within the city of Brunswick. It was one of Georgia Power’s largest customers. It was one of our water authority's largest customers. And it provided a lot of jobs. There were 200 people that were working there. And they decided to shut their doors," she said.
In response to Pinova’s plan to shut down the facility that caught on fire, local authorities in Brunswick even proposed to raise taxes, Thompson added.
"When you add up the influx of money going into the community through those consistent well-paying jobs, and then through the establishments themselves, there's a huge void. And one of the things that's happening right now as a result of that is the city has had to propose a tax increase for this year. People aren’t happy about it. No one is ever happy about taxes going up. But when you consider the loss of revenue from Pinova and they want to maintain a standard of services, they don’t have another option," she said.
While the city of Brunswick tried to develop local tourism in recent years, it would be difficult for the tourism industry to replace revenues from the traditional industrial plants completely, the activist pointed out.
"Unfortunately, I don't have good figures on how much money those [chemical] industries generate compared to the tourism industry. I would say it’s probably a good 50-50 split. This is a very uneducated guess. We do have a lot more tourism than we did probably 50 years ago. And you could say that the economy is trying to shift to more local tourism. But you can’t really kick the mills out," she said.
Instead of trying to push the heavy industries out of Brunswick completely, Thompson’s organization has been advocating for a better plan on how to coexist with those industries.
"That economic void [left behind by the closure of the Pinova plant] may never be fulfilled again. Obviously, people are entitled to their own opinions. Instead of having a conversation of ‘how do we get rid of them,’ our goal as an environmental origination is to try to educate people and say:’ Okay, how can we coexist with the industry to make sure they’re not impacting our quality of life and our health?" she said.