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Freeport LNG emergency response plan
Published October 8, 2009
QUINTANA — Freeport LNG has submitted a bolstered emergency response plan to federal regulators that includes land and marine evacuation points in the event of a liquefied natural gas leak, but a town leader says the plan still needs work.
Town and Freeport LNG leaders need more time to hash out a communications system to inform residents were an disaster to happen on Quintana, which has just one road — the FM 1495 bridge — connecting to the mainland, said town Councilman Jerry Masters, who also is Quintana’s emergency management coordinator.
Freeport LNG officials, town leaders and first responders have been meeting monthly for the last four months to address response procedures, Masters said.
The contingency plan states alarms at the LNG Quintana terminal will sound, local police will be notified, and Brazosport Industrial Community Awareness & Emergency Response will be called.
Masters proposed getting resident contact information and creating a call list so they can be kept informed during a disaster.
“I think it needs some more work, but it’s a starting point,” Masters said. “We still have to get the people involved. That’s what it is all about.”
Freeport LNG and Quintana residents have been at odds since the company began a push to bring trucks carrying liquefied natural gas onto the island to keep its massive twin storage tanks full. The regulatory commission has not yet given Freeport LNG permission to send them onto the island.
The company believes it could take five to six truck deliveries per day, totaling 66,000 gallons of gas, about 60 and 90 days each year, according to the response plan. That would generate traffic of about 540 trucks per year.
Quintana leaders have expressed fears that, were a truck to overturn or get into an automobile accident, the gas could leak from its tanks and endanger islanders.
In an effort to allay concerns, Freeport LNG identified land and marine evacuation points in case an incident occurs, said Mark Mallett, vice president of operations and engineering.
Freeport LNG identified the beach area at the end of FM 1495 and Quintana County Park, 330 Fifth St., as a spot where residents could gather for pickup by first responders during a disaster, according to the evacuation plan. The marine pickup point is at Compass Court near the Intracoastal Waterway, with evacuation routes along the Old Brazos River, Intracoastal Waterway, the Dow barge and Freeport harbor channels.
“The concerns were how could we safely bring an LNG truck onto the island and into our terminal to unload it,” Mallett said. “Those, specifically, are the concerns that we addressed in our revised emergency response plan.”
The response plan also states the company has taken steps to better prepare first responders for the possibly of a gas leak or spill. It has spent $1,200 per Freeport Fire Department firefighter for LNG-specific training and donated $8,000 to the Freeport Police Department for communications equipment upgrades at the Freeport Police Station.
Interim Freeport Fire and EMS Chief Chris Motley said were an accident to occur his crews will cordon off areas surrounding an LNG leak or spill from the public and fight the flames, if any, using water.
“We would respond to it the same as any other hazardous material,” Motley said.
Nathaniel Lukefahr covers Quintana for The Facts. Contact him at 979-237-0151.
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