Cause of Dow Chemical contractor’s death at facility under investigation.

Man was checking welds inside pipe before seeking help

Brazoria County Sheriff’s investigators said Thursday that Michael Brooks, the 46-year-old contractor who died earlier this week at Dow Chemical Co.’s Oyster Creek facility, had been checking welds inside a new pipe when he told his co-worker to radio for help.

Brooks then was found unconscious and was taken early Tuesday to Brazosport Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It’s still unknown exactly how the Alvin resident died.

The Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office is trying to determine the cause of Brooks’ death and is examining his blood toxicology, which may show whether any chemicals were in his system.

Two investigations

The sheriff’s office and Dow Chemical both are conducting their own investigations into the incident.

“We’re all working together to try to figure out what the cause of the death is,” said Brazoria County Sheriff ’s Office investigator Stephen Buchanan.

He said there were no chemicals in the pipe, which was part of a new company project and was not being used.

He said Brooks and at least one other worker were in the 54-inch pipe checking the welds, with Brooks working near a right angle where the pipe turned downwards.

Brooks and the other worker were “getting set up to have a crew come out and X-ray the weld,” Buchanan said.

Buchanan said he did not yet have all the details on exactly what Brooks was doing and whether he was supposed to be in the pipe.

Brooks was a contractor employed by Irving-based engineering and construction company Fluor Corp.

Dow spokeswoman Trish Thompson said Thursday she could not provide additional details on the incident, citing a pending

investigation.

Checking pipes routine

Charlie Singletary, business manager with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 564, said entering pipes and other vessels is routine. The union represents about 1,000 workers at two Dow plants at Freeport, but not at the Oyster Creek facility.

Singletary said it was unusual for something to go wrong, and the death has rattled workers represented by the union.

“I know that we’re on high awareness in all the plants,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the same facility Thursday, Dow battled a chemical leak that started in the early morning hours and prompted about a mile of a nearby highway to be shut down.

Thompson said an unknown quantity of pyrolysis gasoline — a substance also known as pygas that is sold by Dow to the rubber industry — had prompted the closing of Texas 332 from the Oyster Creek facility to Farm-to-Market Road 523.

She said no injuries had been reported and Thursday’s leak was not connected to Brooks’s death.

Thompson said the company would investigate the leak to determine how it occurred and how much of the chemical had escaped.