Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

At an industrial waste treatment centre, a pressure surge due to the decomposition of wastes contained inside a tanker truck accepted into the site broke the manhole lid on the backside of the tanker, which abruptly discharged its gaseous contents. The truck lurched ahead some 15 m and the manhole lid struck the siding of a hydraulic utility room. This tanker and its wastes spread into the vicinity and had to be sprinkled for 30 min in order to be cooled. The centre’s operations personnel were evacuated from the accident zone, while administrative staff remained in their offices. The cooling water was collected. One centre employee was partially burned on the foot.

The waste causing this accident was a mix of 30% hydrogen peroxide and 5% acid resins created as the result of a transfer error occurring on 29th May 2007 in a waste production plant at a paper mill. This waste was accepted at the treatment centre the day before the accident for incineration. The operator encountered some difficulties upon racking the waste and noticed a rise in both the external temperature and internal tanker pressure. The tanker was sprinkled beginning at 8:30 am, with spraying by water curtains applied around 12:30 pm; fire hoses were deployed about an hour later. The sudden degassing event took place around 2:30 pm.

The accident analysis revealed several flaws: noncompliance during the waste acceptance process; possible evolution of wastes between sample submission by the client and the centre’s acceptance date; a lack of controls on temperature, the manholes and tanker vents during the acceptance protocol.

Download the detailed report in .pdf format (244 Kb)