<div>A shelter-in-place order lifted after a release of sulfur dioxide at the ExxonMobil Beaumont plant in Beaumont, Texas, officials said.The shelter-in-place order for the Charlton Pollard neighborhood ended up issued as a precaution at 4:30 p.m. September 10. The order came after a small release of sulfur dioxide when the company was working to correct an upset in a sulfur unit in an effort to prevent a larger release, said Matt Gully, area director of public and government affairs for ExxonMobil. The order lifted just after 5 p.m.Air monitors don’t show any indication of sulfur dioxide in the neighborhood, Gully and the complex manager said.“We had an operational issue in one of our sulfur recovery units, which is designed to remove sulfur from our finished products like diesel and gasoline,” said ” said Mike Mustian, ExxonMobil Beaumont complex manager in a Fox 4 News report. “As we were working through that operational issue, we out of an abundance of caution, decided to issue a shelter-in-place to ensure that the event, if it cascaded into a larger issue, that the community was already sheltered in place and was safe. Thankfully, our operations and emergency response team responded very swiftly, used all of their training to prevent this from becoming a larger issue. We also enacted our fence line monitoring from the very beginning and have been conducting that monitoring ever since, and we didn’t have any detection of any chemicals or hazardous materials leaving our facility.”The company wanted to reassure the community in the wake of what happened, he said.“I want to reassure the community that we worked with all of the government officials and enforcement agencies, their emergency response team, and in consultation we decided to put everyone in a shelter-in-place because of the issue that we were managing,” Mustian said. “We do that to keep people safe, because sometimes the actions that we take aren’t enough. Today they were enough, and so thanks once again to our amazing workforce on their response and preventing that from being a larger event.”“Go inside the nearest building,” according to a release from the City of Beaumont after the shelter-in-place order. “Close and lock all windows and doors. Turn off all ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and close any fireplace dampers. Seal all gaps under doorways and windows with wet towels or duct tape. Remain indoors until an official ‘All Clear’ notice is given.”</div>

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Exxon Plant Chem Release Brings Shelter-in-Place

A shelter-in-place order lifted after a release of sulfur dioxide at the ExxonMobil Beaumont plant in Beaumont, Texas, officials said. The shelter-in-place order for the Charlton Pollard neighborhood ended up issued as a precaution at 4:30 p.m. September 10. The order came after a small release of sulfur dioxide when the company was working to correct an upset in a sulfur unit in an effort to prevent a larger release, said Matt Gully, area director of public and government affairs for ExxonMobil. The order lifted just after 5 p.m.