Refinery explosions did not release oil, asphalt to waterways
Officials continuing to monitor air, water quality
State and federal environmental officials Friday continued monitoring air and water quality in Superior in the wake of explosions and fires the day before at the Husky Energy oil refinery, authorities said.
No oil or asphalt escaped berms built to contain spills at the refinery’s storage tanks, Douglas County Emergency Management Director Keith Kesler said Friday.
Special absorbent booms were placed on nearby Newton Creek Thursday in case any petroleum products overflowed the berms, Kesler said. The stream is a tributary of Lake Superior and the booms would have prevented contaminants from reaching the lake, he said.
Fire crews poured cold water all day Thursday on a storage tank containing hydrofluoric acid at the refinery. If that tank had ruptured, toxic fumes would have impacted a wide area.
Authorities had not been told of any injuries caused by breathing smoke from the oil fire, he said.
Hospitals in Superior and Duluth treated 17 injured people. Several of them were treated and released for evacuation-related injuries, according to a spokesperson for Essentia Health.
At least 13 refinery and construction contractor workers were injured in the blast, Husky Energy refinery manager Kollin Schade said Friday. Six of the injured workers were among those taken to hospitals while seven others were treated at the scene.
Two workers were kept in a hospital overnight but were expected to be released Friday, Schade said.
Local firefighters remained at the refinery Friday to ensure no new fires ignited, a Husky Energy spokeswoman said.
Company officials had no information available on when the refinery would be restarted.
Superior Mayor Jim Paine said he ended an evacuation order covering the city of 27,000 residents at 6 a.m. Friday, after authorities determined the refinery was stable. Refinery fires were extinguished around 7 p.m. Thursday.
The City of Duluth opened its downtown convention center as an overnight shelter and 27 Superior residents spent the night there, according to Kesler.
Schools in Superior and nearby Maple, Wis., remained closed Friday.
As a plume of black smoke from the fires drifted southeast Thursday as far as Solon Springs, authorities alerted residents of the need to evacuate a 3-mile radius around the refinery and a 10-mile corridor to the south.
The evacuation order did not provide information on hazardous chemicals from burning asphalt and oil that could have been in the smoke. The initial explosion ignited asphalt.
The evacuation order covered such a large region as a precaution, Kesler said.
Fire crews poured cold water all day Thursday on a storage tank containing hydrofluoric acid at the refinery. If that tank had ruptured, toxic fumes would have impacted a wide area, Kesler said.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board sent a four-person team to the refinery to investigate the cause of the explosions.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent compliance officers to the refinery to investigate the explosions and determine whether safety standards were being followed at the time of the initial blast.
A spills coordinator from the state Department of Natural Resources was in Superior and a representative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency remained in Superior Friday to monitor environmental impacts of the explosions and fires.
The Superior refinery is the only one in Wisconsin. It processes crude oil from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and western Canada into gasoline and other fuels as well as asphalt.
Husky Energy of Calgary, Alberta bought the 50,000-barrel-per-day refinery last year from Calumet Specialty Products Partners. Calumet had purchased the refinery from Murphy Oil in 2011.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.