By Kelly Yamanouchi, Dylan Jackson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CONYERS, Ga. — The latest in a series of fires and chemical releases at a chemical company plant in Conyers is triggering questions about the safety of the plant operating near millions of residents.
BioLab, the company that owns the Rockdale County factory that caught fire Sunday morning, has had a series of fires and chemical releases at its facilities in Georgia and elsewhere, state and federal records show.
Some 17,000 Rockdale County residents were ordered to evacuate after Sunday’s fire and continued emissions from the charred site led schools to close on Monday in neighboring Newton County , disrupted events across the metro area and kept tens of thousands of people under a shelter-in-place order. The fire, which shut down businesses and temporarily closed I-20 , is at least the fourth significant fire or chemical release from the Conyers plant in the past 20 years, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution review of state and federal records shows.
BioLab makes pool and spa treatment products. Chlorine, a harmful irritant, was detected in the air emitting from BioLab through air quality surveys conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division, according to Rockdale County Emergency Management Agency . The county advised residents to keep windows and doors shut and turn off air conditioning.
“Our top priority is ensuring the community’s safety, and our teams are working around-the-clock to respond to the ongoing situation at our facility in Conyers , Georgia,” BioLab said in a written statement. “We continue to work collaboratively with first responders and local authorities and have deployed specialized teams from out of state to the site to bolster and support their efforts. We are all focused on remediating the situation as rapidly as possible.”
BioLab is part of Lawrenceville -based KIK Consumer Products, which has brands including Comet, Greased Lightning and Spic and Span. KIK acquired BioLab in 2013 to expand its pool and spa treatment business. BioLab has operated in Conyers since 1973 and incidents at the facility date back decades.
In September 2020 , during the COVID-19 pandemic, I-20 was closed for more than six hours as a chlorine vapor cloud rose from the BioLab facility in Conyers due to a chemical reaction. Nearby businesses evacuated and residents were encouraged to shelter in place. Firefighters responded and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board deployed a team to investigate the incident. A spokesman for the company said at the time it was caused by water exposure inside the facility.
In 2016, the Rockdale County fire department responded to a chemical decomposition incident of a swimming pool chemical giving off smoke at the BioLab facility, according to a Georgia Environmental Protection Division complaint report.
In 2004, a fire broke out at a BioLab warehouse at the facility in Conyers that contained about 12.5 million pounds of pool chemicals and oxidizers, prompting thousands of residents to evacuate. People sought shelter in House Elementary and Heritage High School , according to an EPA pollution report.
To fight the fire, an environmental contractor rented excavators and knocked down one of the walls of a warehouse to flood the area with water. Georgia EPD investigated problems with water runoff, which caused a “sizable fish kill” in nearby VFW Lake two days after the fire. Georgia EPD worked with BioLab on restoration.
“The effect of the plume was felt more than 50 miles away,” EPA said on its website.
The EPA said its responses to the 2004 and 2020 fires were “very similar to current response actions.”
BioLab did not have immediate comments in response to questions Monday on its past incidents.
Rockdale County Commission Chair Oz Nesbitt noted that Sunday’s fire was the third incident in recent years.
“We will be having a different type of conversation with leadership and the management of BioLab,” Nesbitt said. “BioLab has been a corporate community partner to Rockdale County and the city of Conyers . However, public safety is paramount, so we will be having the necessary conversation with their leadership team, about their safety and their mitigation plan, and their security plan inside their operations.”
Atlanta resident Daniel Frye said as a former firefighter, he is concerned by “the seriousness of this situation.”
“This is a grave situation,” Frye said. He added that he thinks “the plant should be closed. ... It’s so close to adjacent population centers.”
A BioLab facility in Westlake, Louisiana , has also had numerous problems.
After Hurricane Laura hit the area in August 2020 , a major fire at BioLab’s Louisiana facility caused a release of chlorine gas and caused significant damage to the facility.
The CSB said in a press release on its investigation of that 2020 incident in Louisiana that the facility manufactures pool and spa chemicals containing trichloroisocyanuric acid, which when it “comes into contact with small amounts of water and does not dissolve, it can undergo a chemical reaction that generates heat, causing the decomposition of TCCA, which produces toxic chlorine gas.”
The 2020 fire in Louisiana led to supply chain shortages affecting the pool and spa industry into 2021 and 2022, according to Pool Magazine .
BioLab celebrated a “grand reopening” of its Lake Charles facility in Westlake, Louisiana , in November 2022 .
“We are delighted to reopen our BioLab facility in time to support the 2023 pool season and to meet our promise to the Lake Charles community to rebuild,” said Michael Sload , CEO of KIK Consumer Products, in a written statement at the time.
BioLab’s then-plant manager at the Westlake facility, Don Brunette , said in a statement on the 2022 reopening: “We are pleased to be welcoming our team back to our newly rebuilt facility, which is one of the most advanced trichlor production facilities in the world and even stronger and safer than before.”
In March 2023 , a chlorine leak at the same Louisiana facility caused a cloud over the city of Westlake for hours, according to reports.
And in July 2024 , a fire at the Westlake facility caused the closure of a portion of I-10 and a shelter-in-place order, according to news reports.
The CSB in its 2023 report on the 2020 Louisiana BioLab fire identified several safety issues, including a need to prepare for extreme weather, a delay in the company’s response, a need for automatic extinguishing systems and lack of regulation of the chemical under EPA’s risk management rule.
In February of this year, BioLab received a notice of violation from Georgia environmental regulators after inspectors uncovered several violations during an inspection the month prior. It’s unclear if there is any connection to Sunday’s fire.
During the January inspection, the report said regulators found multiple improperly sealed and unlabeled hazardous waste containers on site. Used oil tanks and buckets were left uncovered, and inspectors noted that the company had not been performing its required weekly self-inspections.
“Multiple areas in the facility… showed a neglect of facility maintenance to the point of creating potential safety hazards. It is advised that the facility take some action to address this issue,” inspectors wrote.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has also fined BioLabs tens of thousands of dollars for repeated safety violations stretching back to 2015, records show.
In 2019, for instance, the company was fined $6,000 for failing to provide “effective information and training” on hazardous chemicals — including chlorine.
Jennette Gayer , director of Environment Georgia, which advocates for clean air, water and action against climate change, said the incidents in Conyers “raise important concerns that require action.”
The organization supported a so-called “Bad Actor Bill” last legislative session that would have barred companies with repeated environmental violations out of state from receiving emissions permits in Georgia .
“First, the Georgia General Assembly should reintroduce, strengthen, and pass ‘Bad Actor’ legislation in the next session that would block companies with a dangerous track record from receiving permits to pollute in Georgia,” she said in a statement. “Second, we need to make sure our state and federal environmental agencies have the resources they need to hold polluting companies to account. This kind of toxic exposure is not acceptable.”
©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Visit at ajc.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.