The chemical manufacturer whose warehouse caught fire during the Houston, Texas floods has been sued by Harris County, Texas.
The lawsuit filed by Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan asks a judge to order Arkema Inc. to improve its disaster safety plans and reimburse the county for responding to the incident.
“We are going to seek the highest penalties possible for what happened and hopefully work with them to make sure that it never happens again,” said Ryan in an interview with Channel 2 KPRC in Houston.
The plant manufactured liquid organic peroxide which caught fire when electricity failed in the floodwaters and cooling systems no longer functioned.
The lawsuit accused Arkema of an illegal emission on Aug. 31and lists harmful contaminants that were released into the air. Among them—sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.
“They did a very poor job of handling it and one would have anticipated that they would have had a robust response to this kind of event,” said Ryan who expressed concerns with Arkema’s emergency response plan in the town of Crosby.
After the fire, residents within a mile-and-a-half of the plant were evacuated. More than a dozen sheriff’s deputies were hospitalized after they responded to explosions at the plant.
