New Albany officials investigating 'yellow plume of smoke' caused by chemical release
An investigation is underway at an industrial plant in New Albany, Indiana, after a chemical release Tuesday morning led to yellow smoke being released into the air, causing a brief shutdown of a nearby interstate and several other facilities.
In a Facebook post just before noon, the City of New Albany said police, firefighters and emergency services personnel had responded after receiving reports of a "yellow plume of smoke" that had been released into the air.
Paul McCauley, executive vice president of Blue Grass Chemicals, said the incident started at about 10:15 a.m. and the visible chemical was "oxides of nitrogen" that had filled a building on site before wafting into the outside air after a reactor at the facility reacted at a rate faster than scrubbers, which remove pollutants from gases, could work. An internal investigation will determine how much of the chemical was released, he said.
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While "no pollutant is good to breathe in," McCauley said no one on site had been hospitalized and the chemical dissipated soon after being released into the atmosphere, and that there was no threat to the public "at this moment" during a press conference just before 1 p.m.
A portion of Interstate 265 near Charlestown Road was closed briefly due to the smoke but reopened soon after, Indiana State Police said just before noon.
Indiana University Southeast also briefly issued a shelter in place order but the advisory was lifted at 11:39 a.m., the school's Twitter account said, while Kent Barrow, director of the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency, said similar orders were put in place at Mt. Tabor Elementary School and several nearby businesses as a precaution.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: New Albany officials investigating chemical release with yellow smoke
