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Case: Kinder Morgan
Sodium Hydroxide Spill, NJ
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Date of incident: October 30, 2004.
Location: Carteret, New Jersey.
Trustees:
Case status: Settled.
Overview: On October 30, 2004, NOAA’s Office of Response and
Restoration received notification from the U.S. Coast Guard about an
aboveground storage tank failure at the Kinder Morgan Energy Terminal in
Carteret, New Jersey. The tank failure resulted in the release of 460,000
gallons of 50% sodium hydroxide, an unknown amount of which entered the Arthur
Kill waterway. An unknown amount of product was contained within the facility’s
containment system. As a result of the structural failure of the first storage
tank, a second storage tank sustained physical damage and also released an
unknown amount of sodium hydroxide, but all of the product was contained. The
cause of the incident remains under investigation.
Sodium hydroxide solution is a liquid caustic soda. It is a colorless solution
that contains components that are corrosive and can be damaging to human health
and the environment. At 50% solution, the product has a specific gravity of
1.53 and a density of 12.76. Sodium hydroxide solution can substantially raise
the pH of an aquatic environment and can be extremely toxic to fish and aquatic
plants.
NOAA ran a trajectory model at the request of the U.S. Coast Guard. The New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Carteret Fire Department, and U.S. Coast Guard responded to the
incident. Kinder Morgan had a crew of approximately 40 individuals cleaning up
the spilled product with the use of vacuum trucks. No on-water cleanup
operations took place.
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