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PARKERSBURG -- The removal of debris at the site of a warehouse fire that burned for eight days will likely happen before the introduction of legislation addressing the keeping of records on what is in such facilities.
The Intercontinental Export-Import Plastics Inc. facility at the former Ames plant on Camden Avenue just outside Parkersburg erupted in flames after midnight on Oct. 21. Smoke and noxious fumes from the site affected air quality over the next several days, closing some schools and businesses and raising concerns about what exactly was burning.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection issued an order requiring IEI to produce information on the contents and released hundreds of pages online in November, showing a spectrum of materials ranging from the mundane to potentially hazardous.
Some lawmakers indicated interest before the start of the West Virginia legislative session in measures addressing the availability of up-to-date inventories for such facilities. But the last day to introduce new bills in the House of Delegates was Tuesday, with a Monday deadline looming in the Senate.
“We will have to take it up in our interim meetings this summer,” Delegate John Kelly, R-Wood, said in a message this week.
Kelly previously indicated he wanted to see the final report from the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety before introducing any legislation. Test results were still pending in late January, and Lawrence Messina, director of communications for the department, said he was unaware of any updates this week, although he was waiting to hear back from the incident commander, Lubeck Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mark Stewart.
“If something appears in one of the reports, we can request that Gov. Justice give us a special call during an interim meeting,” Kelly said. “That way there would be no extra cost to taxpayers.”
At the West Virginia Press Association’s Legislative Lookahead Jan. 5, Senate President Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, was asked about potential legislation.
“Yes, I’ve got it on this piece of paper, an agenda item to require disclosure of contents in warehouses so that we can keep our first responders and the local communities safe in the event of some type of a disaster,” he said.
Carmichael did not return calls about the status of the legislation this week.
Meanwhile, most of the debris from the fire remains stacked at the site. Sunny Naik, accounts manager for SurNaik Holdings of WV LLC, said operations are “right on schedule” according to the plan of action filed with and approved by the DEP.
“There’s just a lot of prep at the site before things can move,” he said, including containment of water and “normal construction stuff.”
Messina said the DEP recently reported Terradon Engineering was doing sampling at the site to determine what, if any material, was considered hazardous waste.
Christina Myer contributed to this story.