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BENZENE.CMP
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1990-09-18
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-- START OF TEXT --
The evacuated residents of an Alexis Park apartment could return home
in a couple of weeks after test results Wednesday showed that Benzene was not
present among hydrocarbon vapors discovered under the kitchen sink Tuesday,
state health officials said. The residents, whose names were not released,
were moved to a nearby hotel Tuesday night until lab tests on the vapors
could be completed, a spokesman for the apartment complex said. The news
media were asked to leave the property. Routine gas tests Tuesday detected
high amounts of unidentified hydrocarbons under a sink in one apartment,
environmental engineers with Oxy USA, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum,
said Wednesday. After notifying the Louisiana Department of Health in New
Orleans and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality in Baton Rouge
of the hydrocarbon gas detection, state officials decided to evacuate the
unit. Early test results from West-Paine Laboratories in Baton Rouge showed
no measurable amounts of benzene, OXY USA environmental engineer Troy Meyers
said.
Benzene is a potentially cancerous byproduct of petroleum. Alexis
Park Apartments and other residential developments from Benton Road to north
of Old Minden Road are built on or near the site of an abandoned oil refinery.
Meyers said other tests results are not in, but officials believe the gas is
methane, a potentially combustible natural gas. Joel Nitzkin, director of the
office of Public Health in the Department of Health and Hospitals, said
previously high methane levels in the Alexis Park apartments suggest that
Tuesday's vapors are also methane. "We're 99.9 percent sure that we're
dealing with methane, but we decided to evacuate as a precautionary measure,"
Nitkin said. While methane is a potentially explosive gas, Nitzkin said the
recently detected levels pose no threats to residents.
*** From The (Shreveport) Times, Shreveport, LA ***
-- END OF TEXT --