One year after Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters swept 13 containers of a hazardous chemical into the New River from a warehouse at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, the search continues for the last three continues.
Meanwhile, plant officials say they plan to relocate the warehouse and seven others, moving warehouses out of the floodplain to prevent reoccurrence of the incident that released at least 1,575 gallons of dibutyl phthalate, a colorless, oily liquid used in the manufacture of propellants.
Most of the material held in the warehouses has already been moved.
On Sept. 27, severe flooding ripped open the doors of one warehouse and carried away the 275-gallon plastic containers, known as totes.
An extensive search over the next six months led to the discovery of 10 totes. Some were still holding the chemicals, but others had been punctured and emptied of their contents.
Attempts to recover the remaining three are ongoing, according to Robert Davie, deputy to the commander of the Army munitions plant.
While exposure to large amounts of dibutyl phthalate can cause health problems, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has said that any threats were minimized by the huge amount of flooding that quickly diluted the chemical.
“The water that was flowing through the warehouse was the equivalent of what goes over the Niagara Falls in one second, and that was happening over and over,” Davie said Tuesday during a presentation to media outlets.
“It was a massive amount of water and a very small amount of chemicals,” he said.
In the days after the totes were discovered missing, an extensive search was carried out by law enforcement, emergency response crews and officials with BAE Systems, the company contracted by the Army to run what is commonly known as the Radford arsenal.
The teams covered an approximately 70-mile stretch of the New River — from the plant in Montgomery County downstream to the Bluestone Dam in West Virginia — looking by water, land and air.
Tangent Outfitters of Pembroke, a business better known for renting canoes and kayaks and guiding river tours, was brought in to assist the effort with its extensive knowledge of the New River.
The search has been complicated by large piles of flood-swept debris that may be hiding the containers.
If someone spots one of the totes, which are made of rigid plastic enclosed in a steel frame, they are asked to contact local authorities via non-emergency lines.
Most of the containers recovered so far were not far from the plant. None have been found since March 28, according to DEQ’s summary of its investigation.
At some point, Davie said, arsenal officials may acknowledge that the remaining three totes will not be found.
“But right now, the weather’s good and we’ve got the word out to the public, and we hope that with the debris piles shifting, some of these will pop up,” he said. “It’s going to take time.”
Laurence Hammack
(540) 981-3239
laurence.hammack@roanoke.com
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