Barely three months ago, the nation boiled with public anger over a total failure in connection with a toxic chemical leak from a plant in Gumi, 250 kilometers southeast of Seoul, which killed five workers and injured 18 others.
On Saturday, a similar chemical leak occurred at a plant in Sangju, Gumi’s neighboring city, as if the country had learned no lesson from the previous disaster. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, as the plant had been out of operation for six months. Yet the latest leak could have escalated into a large-scale calamity.
The hydrochloric acid leak occurred at the Woongjin Polysilicon plant at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, from a 250-ton storage tank. Police suspect that a frozen valve ruptured because of the cold weather, letting out the hazardous material. How much hydrochloric acid, an essential component to produce polysilicon used to manufacture solar panels, leaked from the tank is as yet unknown.
Police are investigating the exact cause of the accident but it’s quite disappointing that the government’s comprehensive package of measures that came on the heels of the Gumi disaster failed to prevent the incident.
What’s more, both the company and the authorities showed grave negligence in their initial responses. Woongjin deserves harsh blame for not reporting the accident to police immediately as the company wasted hours trying to bring the situation under control by itself. It turns out that police and firefighters were not aware of the leak until a resident reported it more than three hours later, after witnessing white smoke spreading out from the plant. Given that a company worker was hurt from an explosion in October 2010, Woongjin might have tried to cover up the latest incident.
It’s common to evacuate residents when the situation is chaotic due to difficulty in measuring the severity of the disaster, but the authorities didn’t do so and only warned residents in the area not to leave their homes. What if the accident had been much larger?
It simply defies our understanding that Sangju City conducted a regular inspection of hazardous facilities at the plant on Dec. 17, only 25 days before the incident, and gave a ``suitable’’ judgment to them.
The first thing the government should do is to take appropriate measures to prevent secondary damage from the leak. Given that similar disasters occur repeatedly, the government must double-check how the nation’s toxic materials are managed across the nation. Of course, those responsible for the chemical leak and its mishandling should be penalized harshly.