Casselton, a town of about 2,400 residents, underwent a precautionary evacuation that lasted into Tuesday, December 31, 2013. Complicating matters were temperatures below zero which certainly made it difficult for the residents of Casselton. Residents of Casselton reported that the explosions from the accident shook their homes and businesses for hours.

The derailment happened even as concerns are growing over the safety of shipping significant quantities of crude oil by rail. Fortunately, in this accident there were not the same catastrophic effects of a similar accident in Ontario this past summer. In the Ontario accident, forty-seven people died following the derailment of a train carrying crude oil.

There are reports that BNSF has set up a claims center for people displaced form their homes due to this accident. Typically, these claims centers only reimburse people for out-of-pocket expenses related to an evacuation. The lawyers at Hendren & Malone have represented thousands of families in similar cases across the country and secured compensation not only for out-of-pocket costs but also for the loss of use of the home and other incidental expenses such as lost wages. If you or a family member have a question about your rights following an industrial accident such as this, contact the lawyers at Hendren & Malone for a free consultation.

The RW Garcia Plant reported a leak of carbon monoxide on Monday afternoon and the facility was evacuated. However, twenty seven employees and one emergency responder were taken to local hospitals for exposure to the toxic gas.

According to reports, Charlotte’s HazMat team is investigating to determine the source of the leak and the plant remains closed.

Read more on this incident.

If you or a family member has a question about a North Carolina carbon monoxide leak claim, contact the lawyers at Hendren & Malone for a free consultation. Attorney J. Michael Malone has a Ph.D. in environmental engineering and has represented hundreds of North Carolinians in toxic exposure cases.

The leak occurred at the RW Garcia Corp. Plant at around 1:00 pm. It is not clear what caused the leak at this time. However, in many of these cases, gas leaks are the result of either poor maintenance practices or the failure of a valve or pipe fitting. Hopefully, state OSHA inspectors will determine what went wrong here.

The number of sick people is increasing despite a recall of the contaminated products. The sick are suffering from Salmonella Infantis and several have been hospitalized. More are expected to become sick as the products have a shelf life of one year.

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If you or a family member has been sickened by exposure to any Diamond Pet Food, please contact the lawyers at Hendren & Malone for a free consultation.

Apparently, the most common cause of injury came from mixing incompatible products, chemical spills and splashes and a lack of protective equipment. Researchers gathered data from the Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risk and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.

Click here for more on this interesting story.

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If you or your family have been affected by this explosion and evacuation, call Hendren & Malone today. The lawyers at Hendren & Malone have brought cases for evacuation related damages in multiple jurisdictions. We were the attorneys for the residents of Apex, North Carolina who were evacuated in 2006 following an explosion at the EQ facility. That case resulted in a $7.85 million settlement for the residents in a class action.

This is a interesting and troubling case. North Carolina is one of the leading poultry producers in the United States and ammonia refrigeration systems are likely used in virtually every plant. Just a few weeks ago, there was a significant ammonia leak from a turkey processing plant in Raeford, North Carolina. The lawyers at Hendren & Malone are currently evaluating claims relating to the Raeford incident.

If you have an environmental law question, call Mike Malone at Hendren & Malone.

If you have a question about your legal rights in a situation similar to this, call Mike Malone at Hendren & Malone.

Opponents of Alcoa Inc.’s effort to win a new 50-year license to operate four hydroelectric dams along a 38-mile stretch of the Yadkin River blasted the company yesterday for failing to deliver jobs and clean up pollution it created around the dams and its lakes.

About 150 people gathered at the home of Cathy Dunn, a High Rock Lake resident who wants the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject Alcoa’s license-renewal bid. Alcoa’s license expired in 2008, and its effort to renew is being strongly opposed by environmental advocates and politicians, ranging from county commissioners to Gov. Bev Perdue.

Perdue is positioning the state to take control of the dams if FERC rejects Alcoa’s bid.

Alcoa is currently operating on a temporary license.

Dunn, a Davidson County commissioner, said she was acting as a private resident. She has recently joined forces with several organizations to form the Yadkin River Alliance. Other groups include the N.C. Water Rights Committee, Save High Rock Lake and the Stanly County commissioners.

“This issue could be one of the most historical issues in North Carolina,” Dunn said. “I want everyone to understand why FERC should issue this license back to the people of North Carolina.”

Yesterday, those at Dunn’s home listened to short speeches by state Sens. Fletcher Hartsell and Stan Bingham, as well as Max Walser, the chairman of the Davidson County board of commissioners, and Keith Crisco, the N.C. secretary of commerce.

Alcoa did not send a representative because it did not think there would be a balanced discussion, said Mike Belwood, a spokesman for the company.

The crowd did, however, include Alcoa supporters, who participated in a question-and-answer session.

Several speakers painted Alcoa as a dishonest company that did not live up to its promise to create 1,000 jobs at its aluminum smelting plant in Badin, which closed in 2007. The company continues to operate its four dams to create hydroelectric power, which is sold on the open market for more than $40 million a year.

Now that the smelting-plant jobs have disappeared, Crisco and others questioned how Alcoa is serving the public’s interest by continuing to operate the dams and plant.

“I was in high school in Stanly County in 1958 and the deal then was for 900 jobs, you get to use our water,” Crisco said. “Today, no jobs. No use of water. That is the deal.”

The state, Crisco said, wants to be in a position to “recapture” the license if FERC rejects Alcoa’s bid.

“It’s not a government takeover,” he said. “It’s simply doing the best for our citizens.”

Belwood disagreed.

“We bought the property, developed the dams and worked hard to operate them for many, many years. We do believe that what is happening there is an attempt by the government to take private property. Anyone who believes in private property rights should be concerned by this effort,” Belwood said.

Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper, said the contaminants left behind by the smelting plant have created an environmental mess that the company has failed to acknowledge.

“Yes, people have died from this contamination,” Naujoks said.

Belwood said that Alcoa has worked with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources to clean up identified sites.

“Where issues have been identified, we’ve taken steps and worked very closely with the state,” he said.

There’s certainly no glowing nuclear waste. Dioxin is doubtful. And as for other varied carcinogens, who knows?

It’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that making up the debris at the old Phoenix landfill site at Tucker Creek.

But the truth is no one really knows with any certainty if the heaping pile of rusting and decaying metal and construction debris is hazardous.

Havelock commissioners saw a video on the dump Monday night. Diane Miller, the city’s grant manager and public information officer, put the video together.

Since the 34-acre Phoenix Recycling Corporation site near Havelock’s west end was shut down in 2000, it has been unmanned and free for people to enter and dump whatever they wanted, free of charge and out of sight.

“God knows what’s in it,” said Miller. “Nobody’s been out there in 10 years.”

Today, 10-year-old pines, tall weeds and a canopy of kudzu cover vast portions of the many piles of refuse, generally divided among metals, cardboard, plastics and wood. Small rainwater runoff streams emanate from the heaps. The wet ground is stained brown and copper-colored, with an unmistakable oily sheen pointing the way of the waterways.

Included on the metal piles are industrial electric transformers. At least one mangled transformer oozed goo of undetermined toxicity.

“This is something that is disconcerting,” Miller said as she walked through the unnatural landscape in rubber boots recently. “It’s an active drain basin. Who knows where it is going. It’s just going into coastal waters. The biggest concern for us is groundwater contamination.”

A 2005 report indicated that the site had no hazardous materials, but that same report mentions the finding doesn’t mean hazards wouldn’t be found in the future. That was the last assessment done of the site.

The dump, which opened in 1993, was closed by the state in 2000. The companies operating the site have dissolved, leaving back taxes and tons of debris. The property is in foreclosure and could soon end up under ownership of Craven County.

City leaders want to create a park at the site, but an assessment of hazardous materials and a cleanup estimated at $2 million are the first steps.

The highest and broadest feature in the landfill is a massive mound of chipped wood from which one can see the entire acreage.

A well-worn ATV path from the direction of MacDonald Downs seems to indicate there has been some visitation of the site by residents of the adjacent subdivision.

“Kids are kids. There’s nothing you can do to keep kids out where they want to go,” Miller said. “We just want people around here to be safe.”

While the danger from cuts and scrapes on rusty metal shards may be an invitation to tetanus, city officials worry of possible unseen dangers hidden among the estimated 150,000 cubic yards of unprocessed material at the site.

In 2004, Havelock contracted to have two environmental assessments done on the Phoenix site for $44,000. Several test wells were dug to determine the toxicity of groundwater.

In February 2005, the firm Tritech Civil Environmental reported that metals including arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium were found in samples from the groundwater wells.

The report also found concentrations for chromium and lead exceeded N.C. Department of Natural Resources groundwater quality standards. However, the report indicated that the levels could be natural and not as a result of the dump.

Tritech installed six methane gas detection wells and recommended that 13 be installed to monitor the site. Methane gas was detected in half of the six wells in 2004.

“We are of the opinion that there are currently no toxic or hazardous chemicals in the various media at the site that could adversely affect human health or the environment based on existing regulatory standards provided the facility is properly developed into a recreation facility,” the report found.

Tritech recommended quarterly monitoring for the first three years and semi-annual monitoring for the next six years after that. Miller said no such monitoring program was ever conducted.

The city sent letters July 21 to members of Havelock’s legislative delegation that spell out the timeline of the landfill and ask for the members to make a personal visit to the site.

“I honestly believe that even the casual observer looking at that would say something’s wrong. This is a step in the right direction,” Mayor Jimmy Sanders said Monday night.

Commissioner Will Lewis said the city did not create the dump but is trying to take steps to fix it even though the property is not within city limits.

“We are dedicated to spearheading the efforts, but it is not the city of Havelock’s dump,” Lewis said. “We’re just trying to fix it. We just don’t have the millions of dollars to clean up the site.”

If you have an environmental law question, call the lawyers at Hendren and Malone, PLLC.

David Bradley, 61, runs an insulation business out of his home on Chapel Hill Church Road, near the contaminated former CTS of Asheville site. Now, based on a request from CTS, the Environmental Protection Agency has demanded that Bradley give out information on his home as a possible source of contamination or face stiff fines.

“The United States Environmental Protection Agency is currently investigating the release or threatened release of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants, or hazardous wastes on or about the above-referenced Sites,” a June 25 letter to Bradley and his company reads. “Compliance with the Infornation Request is mandatory. Failure to respond fully and truthfully to the Infornation Request within thirty (30) days of receipt of this letter, or to adequately justify such failure to respond, can result in an enforcement action by EPA.”

Among other questions, the letter asks Bradley, “Did you ever use, purchase, generate, store, treat, dispose of, or otherwise handle at any hazardous substances at 14 Chapel Hill Church Road?” and “Describe the chemical processes that have been used at your property at 14 Chapel Hill Church Road, during the period of time when you owned, leased, and/or operated the facility. Specify which processes involved the use of trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), toluene, or any other solvent or petroleum product.”

Bradley was placed on municipal water last August after 840 parts per billion of TCE — more than 168 times the legal maximum of the suspected carcinogen — were found in his family’s well. He tells Xpress he’s baffled and angry at the request. He doesn’t manufacture insulation and stores it in Fletcher, far away from the site the EPA is demanding information about.

“I don’t keep insulation here, I just work out of my house,” Bradley says. “I don’t make the insulation, I get it from distributors. I just install it. I don’t know what they’re trying to say, I just figure since they found so much of that stuff in my water, they’re trying to blame me for screwing the water up.”

He says that while he can’t prove a connection, a rash on his grandson’s arms and legs disappeared after his household stopped using the contaminated well water.

“The people who come out here from the EPA are nice,” he says. “There’s been a couple that said they know exactly where it’s coming from up there [at CTS], but I don’t know they’d come out and say that.”

“They [the EPA] say they’ll fine me $37,500 a day if I don’t answer the request,” he adds, before chuckling. “They’ll have a hell of a time getting it, ‘cause I don’t have any money, there’s no construction right now.”

However, in late September of last year, lawyers for CTS sent congressional staff a letter claiming that there could be other sources of contamination besides the massive electroplating plant, which is located less than a half-mile from Bradley’s property. The plant closed in 1986. CTS instead pointed the finger at, among other businesses, Gerber’s Henderson Road facility, a dry cleaner, a meth lab, the Volvo Construction plant — and Bradley’s home-based business.

“It is well documented … that various solvents and adhesives are used in the process of installing insulation and HVAC [heating, ventilation and air conditioning] components,” CTS’ letter reads.

EPA’s handling of testing and cleanup at the site has been sharply criticized by local residents and activists. In May, a report from the EPA Inspector General blasted EPA’s Region 4, which, along with state agencies, oversees the operation asserting limited oversight, along with poor record-keeping and communication, harmed the effort and failed to communicate the hazards to the public.

Bradley’s consulting with some attorneys and plans to fight the request.

North Carolina has a “shield law” meant to protect the media from being forced to hand over information about their sources to the government.

But in this case, UNC-TV spokesman Steve Volstad says the station was in a tight spot because it kind of is the government:

“We are a state agency because we’re part of the university system,” says Volstad. “State law requires state agencies to comply with requests for information from the General Assembly.”

UNC-TV also gets about half it’s funding from the General Assembly.

Volstad says the station got conflicting advice from attorneys about whether the state’s shield law would trump a subpoena by state lawmakers. And he says they didn’t have time to build a legal defense, because the deadline to turn over the tapes was noon yesterday.

“Given the deadline involved and the uncertainty on that topic, we felt we really had no choice in the matter,” says Volstad.

Volstad says the station delivered 13-hours of unedited interviews to Senator Fletcher Hartsell’s office Monday.

Hartsell subpoena the footage because he’s trying to muster support for a bill that would place Alcoa’s Yadkin River dams under state control. He is concerned that the final edited version of UNC-TV’s series might downplay the environmental contamination for which he believes Alcoa is responsible.

Volstad says UNC-TV is committed to airing an accurate story and will refrain from exercising customary editorial review of the reporter’s work before it airs.

“So there wouldn’t be the issue of whether there was any inappropriate influence being exercised in what we put on the air,” explains Volstad.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will review raw footage from UNC-TV in a public meeting Tuesday at 9 a.m. UNC-TV plans to start airing the finished series Tuesday night on its program North Carolina Now.

Rick Childrey, director of the Smithfield-Selma Chamber of Commerce, said the closure — which was announced around dinnertime Wednesday — will mean a big loss for restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses in the area that rely on passerby. Folks are less likely to shop at the outlet mall if they can’t eat too, he said.

If you have a question about legal rights relating to this incident, or any environmental matter, call the environmental attorneys at Hendren & Malone. Attorney Mike Malone has a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from NCState in addition to a law degree and has over 10 years experiecne representing victims of contamination.

Town officials used a reverse 9-1-1 system to broadcast an order that could be lifted as early as this afternoon if additional tests show the bacteria are gone.

Smithfield Utilities Director Earl Botkin said the contamination has been isolated to a home in the Longview Drive area of West Smithfield. Other testing sites are coming up clear, he said, but state regulations require the mandatory boil-water order.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/07/01/560066/e-coli-spurs-smithfield-to-urge.html#ixzz0sU6XpfQJ

If you have an environmental law question, call Mike Malone at Hendren & Malone immediately for a feee consultation.

The recommendations – directed to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and others, result from extensive CSB investigations into the February 7, 2010, explosion at the Kleen Energy power plant in Middletown that caused six deaths and multiple injuries, and the June 9, 2009, explosion at the ConAgra Foods Slim Jim plant in Garner, North Carolina, that killed four workers and injured 67.

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The proposed penalty stems from a 2008 accident in which a city maintenance crew breached a dam and drained a spring pool containing one of the world’s largest populations of the small, endangered watercress darter. Scientists estimated that 12,000 were killed, more than half the known global population.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the city initially cooperated with efforts to restore the darter’s habitat but has declined to address other threats posed by city facilities.

If you have questions about an environmental case, contact the environmental lawyers at Hendren & Malone. Attorney J. Michael Malone has PhD in environmental engineering in addition to a law degree and is uniquely positioned to pursue environmental cases across North Carolina.