Federal investigators previously raised alarm about BioLab chemicals

After a fire in August 2020 at a BioLab chemicals facility in Louisiana sent a massive toxic plume over the surrounding community, federal investigators blamed the company for its poor preparation and faulty fire suppression system.

Investigators also called for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to change its rules to include the company’s reactive chemicals under more stringent regulation — a recommendation that ultimately went unheeded by the EPA.

The Louisiana fire now serves as a prologue to a similar blaze at a BioLab facility in Conyers on Sunday that has sent a toxic cloud over Rockdale County and disrupted large swaths of metro Atlanta as a growing number of voices are now imploring the EPA to more forcefully regulate the chemicals at the heart of the incidents. Some are calling for the Conyers facility to be permanently shut down.

“It’s unfortunate we didn’t take the lessons to heart from the Louisiana fire that was catastrophic,” said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat whose district includes Conyers.

BioLab spokesman Daniel Hoadley defended the company’s safety record in an email on Thursday and said the company’s Conyers facility featured upgraded and enhanced safety equipment and emergency response protocols. He added the company periodically evaluated its fire protection system and conducted walk throughs with the local fire department.

“Over the years, our company has been rigorous about actioning enhancements to our facilities, policies and practices,” Hoadley said.

Last year, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) issued its investigative report and recommendations from the 2020 incident at the company’s Westlake, Louisiana, facility near Lake Charles. The CSB announced on Monday it was opening an investigation into the Conyers fire.

“We are sending investigators to the site to determine the cause of this dangerous incident and the safety gaps at the facility that allowed this huge fire to occur. Tens of thousands of people have been put potentially at risk by this catastrophe,” safety board chairperson Steve Owens said in a news release.

Like the Conyers plant, the Louisiana facility produced chemicals used to clean swimming pools and spas. The fire started when a Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm, damaged the roof of the facility and allowed water to mix with reactive chemicals housed on-site.

As first responders battled the blaze, local officials shut down the nearby highway and Louisiana’s governor John Bel Edwards advised nearby businesses and residents to shelter-in-place.

At the time, BioLab representatives said they had followed shutdown protocols ahead of the storm, according to reports. But in final report published in April 2023, federal investigators laid much of the blame on BioLab.

Investigators found that, prior to the storm, the facility’s backup generator and one of the diesel pumps required to operate the site’s fire suppression system in the case of a power outage were inoperable. Employees couldn’t get a rented backup generator at the plant to start. The report also said the company did not call the fire department early enough.

“Bio-Lab experienced serious delays in responding to the... fire due to an inadequate and largely nonfunctional fire protection system and the absence of automated sprinkler systems,” the report said.

Hoadley said BioLab took “significant and appropriate” steps to secure the site prior to the arrival of the hurricane. He said the company’s rebuilt Louisiana facility, which reopened in November 2022, has incorporated enhanced safety features.

Federal investigators also called on the EPA to more strictly regulate the company’s reactive products.

Under current law, the reactive chemicals featured in BioLab’s products are not regulated under the Risk Management Program Rule — which puts facilities that house certain hazardous chemicals under greater scrutiny and would have required companies such as BioLab to create preparedness plans that informs first responders in case of an emergency, among other regulations.

The EPA did not adopt this recommendation, according to a spokeswoman for the CSB. While the safety board is tasked with investigating incidents, it has no regulatory authority and can only advise that the EPA adopt new rules based on investigative findings.

Adopting this recommendation could have “absolutely” helped prevent the Conyers fire, said Victor Flatt, an environmental law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. He said the regulations could have also helped streamline the state and local emergency response, which was at times confusing and opaque as guidance continually shifted earlier this week.

“There would be a plan to ameliorate the harm rapidly,” Flatt said. “[Emergency responders] would know what to do.”

Although the precise details about how the Conyers blaze began are unclear, initial public statements point to a faulty sprinkler that led to water mixing with the facility’s reactive chemicals. The fire was initially extinguished at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, but then reignited, an EPA spokesperson said. At 3 p.m. that day, the facility’s roof collapsed.

In the days since, residents in the surrounding area have been put under a shelter-in-place order as the plume continues to emit toxic chemicals and has drifted intermittently to neighboring counties. On Thursday, Rockdale school officials announced that students would stay home as schools would operate virtually for the first few days of next week. And hundreds of patients across the metro area have come into emergency rooms and clinics complaining of symptoms associated with exposure to the BioLab smoke, according to state health officials.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has filed public records requests seeking fire inspection reports, 911 calls and other relevant documents to better understand how the fire unfolded.

The fire that broke out on Sept. 29 is not the first serious breakdown at the Conyers facility, according to state and federal regulatory records. At least three other serious incidents where firefighters were called to the facility have occurred in the past two decades, according to records. In September 2020, a chlorine vapor cloud emanating from the plant forced the closure of I-20 for more than six hours, records show. Firefighters were called and federal investigators with the safety board reviewed the incident.

Four years earlier, the fire department responded to a chemical release at the plant, according to a Georgia Environmental Protection Division complaint report. In 2004, a fire at the plant caused large plume and forced thousands of residents to evacuate. Some sought shelter at local schools and water runoff from the incident led to a large fish kill in nearby in a nearby lake, records show.

“The effect of the plume was felt more than 50 miles away,” EPA said on its website.

As the aftermath of Sunday’s fire continues to impact the region, some public officials are calling for action and relief. At a Thursday news conference on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, state leaders representing Rockdale and other community figures demanded the closure of the plant, along with financial restitution for the residents and communities impacted by the fire.

State Sen. Tonya Anderson, whose district includes Conyers, lives less than two miles from the plant. She called on the state’s Environmental Protection Division to release the number of inspections they have conducted on the facility and Gov. Brian Kemp to hold the EPD accountable. She said BioLab should leave the community.

“Since you’re not going to be good stewards of the environment, take your hat, take your coat and leave,” said Anderson.

Rep. Johnson said that while it may have made sense for the plant to be located in Rockdale County when it first opened in 1973, the population growth surrounding the once-rural area is incompatible with the dangers the plant poses. Rockdale today has more than 90,000 residents.

“It is an intolerable situation for the manufacturing of toxic and hazardous chemicals at that plant to be taking place in today’s Rockdale County and today’s Atlanta metropolitan region,” Johnson said.

— AJC reporters Savannah Sicurella and Helena Oliviero contributed reporting to this article.

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