During the NTSB Hearing Thursday afternoon, safety coordinator for SPSI’s Drew McCarty says that polymerization was taking place in the rail cars.

 

Norfolk Southern’s Robert Wood said they were more concerned when pool fires below the rail cars were out, yet the internal temperature of the cars was still rising.

 

Wood said that the content of the cars couldn’t’ be offloaded because of the damage to the values in the case in East Palestine.

 

NTSB's Paul Stancil asked Wood about a rail car that showed a decline in the temperature, yet the decision to vent and burn took place.

 

McCarty said that data results, while conflicting, feared internal polymerization, and stated that any one misstep would have put the community at risk beyond vent and burn, the last tool in the toolbox, but was needed he testified to.

 

Charles Day, with Specialized Solutions, said he grew up in the business, with 41 years of experience, and learned from multiple resources over the years, including approximately 30 vent and burn, but only one that involved vinyl chloride, which was Livingston, Louisiana in 1982. Day told the NTSB officials that he would not speculate on what was going on in front of the committee, but said that an inhibited product with a massive temperature increase, that the inhibitor has the possibility of going away, a telltale sign that “something bad’ could be taking place inside the car.

 

The NTSB official asked Wood what section of the safety data sheet lead them to decide to vent and burn the vinyl chloride from the derailed rail cars.

Wood responded that the Hazardous Polymerization section of the SDS states exposure can cause explosive or violent polymerization, including avoiding elevated temperatures.

 

Paul Thomas with Oxy Vinyls testified that the 12-degree change of temperature over 22 hours, and dropped after a fire near the car was extinguished, led him to the conclusion that polymerization was not going on inside the car, stating that burst pressure on the car in question was 750, no where near a threat level from polymerization.

 

But Thomas said that the communication they were providing was through Steve Smith of Oxy Vinyls who was on the scene and that Smith provided it to the group on scene making the decisions.

 

Smith said that Oxy Vinyls was in East Palestine to provide technical support and to answer questions and be a liaison between what was going on in East Palestine and providing the information back to his team in Dallas.

 

Smith testified that he did suggest that polymerization could be occurring with a slight increase that occurred, and he had two meeting with SPSI and the drive to the fire department to meet with NTSB and Norfolk Southern, but disclosed at the time he was not a polymerization expert.

 

Smith says he reiterated that he was not a polymerization expert and would need to speak with his team in Dallas, and at that point, said the was no indication of polymerization taking place.

 

But the reasons to vent and burn were outlined by McCarty after Oxy Vinyls said they believed that polymerization wasn’t taking place.

 

The testimony went on break and is expected to continue until 7 p.m. Thursday.