ATLANTA — State legislators from Rockdale and DeKalb counties will hold a public meeting Tuesday on the chemical plume continuing to emanate from the BioLab site in Conyers.
It's being held at 10 a.m. in the Coverdell Legislative Office Building, across from the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta.
According to a notice for the meeting, both Georgia House and Senate members from Rockdale and DeKalb, as well as members of the House Minority Caucus, will be present to "hear from citizens, business owners and others impacted by the BioLab chemical fire."
The fire was put out on Sunday, September 29, the same day it ignited, but the chemical reaction between sprinkler system water and what officials have described as pool shock - a pool and spa chlorination product - has continued to send the plume into the air.
The surrounding community has reported irritation symptoms in the number of a few hundred, according to the Georgia Department of Health, though DPH cautioned there have been very few serious symptomatic cases. Residents also reported ashy debris scattered across the area, schools and businesses have closed and gradually softening shelter-in-place orders have been ongoing.
In the latest update Monday, Rockdale County Commission Chairman Oz Nesbitt Sr. said that they have crews on the ground at the scene trying to get the situation completely under control.
“We still have a crisis, so we’re still in the middle of crisis management," Nesbitt Sr. said.
BioLab has not confirmed how the fire started in its 275,000 square foot warehouse on the morning of Sept. 29. However, Rockdale County Fire said it was a malfunctioning sprinkler head that released water onto chlorine stored in the warehouse, which caused a chemical reaction that sparked the fire.
“We’re working with very hazardous materials,” Rick Jardine with the Environmental Protection Agency explained during the news conference
Jardine said, “It’s an uncontrolled chemical, so they’re not in containers, they’re not in the building, we can’t shut the doors.”
The intensity of the fire caused the roof of the large facility to collapse and the walls to fall in which trapped the chemicals underneath.
Biolab hasn’t confirmed all the materials that were being stored in the warehouse but stated:
“These raw materials include Trichlor (TCCA), a chemical commonly used to make Chlorinated Tablets to treat swimming pools to kill bacteria and algae, and Dichlor (DCCA), used to make swimming pool shock. Other raw materials stored are used to produce products for swimming pool and spa maintenance, such as water balance, pH control and water clarity.”
On Monday, at the suggestion of the EPA due to air quality concerns, Rockdale County issued a shelter-in-place for a two mile radius around the facility until further notice.
This past Friday, the Rockdale County Sheriff wrote a letter to businesses immediately around the facility in the area of Blacklawn Road and Olympic Court to remain closed due to the off-gassing still happening at the facility. The letter indicated the amount of chlorine in the air is unsafe for long-term exposure.
As of Monday afternoon, Chairman Nesbitt admitted they don’t know how long this is going to take to get under control.
“We cannot give you false hope or box us into a certain amount of time. I would love to say this would be over tomorrow or the next day, but we’re not at that point,” he said.