Chemical used in the production of polystyrene at the centre of Napier Port HAZMAT incident, FENZ says
An industrial chemical used in the production of polystyrene is at the centre of a HAZMAT incident at the Port of Napier, Fire and Emergency New Zealand says.
FENZ Hawke's Bay Assistant Area Commander Glen said they believe the chemical, called styrene monomer, is contained within the containers.
A Napier Port spokesperson said Napier Port’s Health and Safety and Environmental teams were notified of a potential substance leak on port this morning. FENZ were also notified, along with the Port's Health and Safety and Environmental teams monitoring the situation.
The substance had leaked from a container that was unloaded from a vessel this morning, with further investigation currently taking place to determine the cause of the spill, the spokesperson said.
Varcoe said a small amount of liquid and a faint odour alerted port authorities to the HAZMAT incident. "They isolated the area and did everything as per their protocols."
One of their first priorities was to ensure any spill was contained as it poses a "serious threat" to marine life. "We worked with the Port authorities to ensure that any drain was blocked before we started operations."
Currently, a command unit, a decontamination appliance and four appliances are onsite.
This afternoon, they opened the container. At the time of speaking to Hawke's Bay App, Varcoe said they were just about to start operations to remove the container and assess how much of the spill there is."
"There is a little bit of moisture that has seeped through the container onto the asphalt but it hasn't increased and we are monitoring the air quality with our detection equipment just to ensure the incident hasn't escalated," he said.
At this stage, they believe it is "minimal". "But obviously the product is a hazardous substance and it has some explosive tendencies so we need to take all precaution in managing the incident."
"These jobs are always long in duration so it's just a time thing to make sure we mitigate any risk and make sure personnel is safe throughout the operations so unfortunately, that is time-consuming."
Varcoe said the only risk, other than marine life, is to firefighters during operations.
The Napier Port spokesperson said they are working through an appropriate clean-up approach. Limited operations resumed at the container terminal this afternoon.
"We have also extended our gate hours for late receivals this evening in order to assist customers," the spokesperson said.
"We expect full operations to resume tomorrow provided FENZ have given an all-clear for the site."
