The Mosaic Fertilizer plant in Mulberry had to be evacuated after 100 lbs. of Ammonia was released from an above ground pipeline on Tuesday.
Mosaic has released the following statement in response to the incident:
Shortly after 10 am this morning, Mosaic Fertilizer notified the National Response Center and State Warning Point of an ammonia release at the New Wales manufacturing facility. One of our fertilizer granulation plants was offline for scheduled maintenance work. During that work, employees opened an isolated and deactivated ammonia pipeline and some residual ammonia inadvertently was released into the atmosphere. Contractors were cleared from the immediate area. The plant’s emergency response teams responded. The release was contained to the immediate area by applying water to the ammonia vapors. At this time we have had no reports of exposures or injuries. The NW facility continues to operate normally. There were no threats to the neighboring community or other operating areas. Mosaic is determining a more precise quantity released and the cause of the incident.
The pipe was purposely broken for maintenance purposes, but without knowing there was still ammonia inside.
This is the same plant where the toxic sinkhole opened up in 2016.
There were no injuries reported.
NEW: Evacuation lifted at New Wales Mosaic plant. It was a "small group of contractors" that evacuated. No injuries.
— Ryan Raiche (@ryanraiche) January 10, 2017
It is unknown how many people were inside the building at the time of the evacuation.
Mosaic's Emergency Response Team is handling the incident.
This story is developing. Check back with abcactionnews.com for further updates.
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