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Parent Category: Safety Info Posts

Category: Chemical Process Safety (PSM/RMP)

Published: 08 February 2013

Federal officials have charged a Georgia transportation company in a 2009 ammonia leak that killed a South Carolina woman.  According to court documents, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against the transportation company for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act.  The wrong type of hose was used as 7,000 pounds of anyhydrous ammonia were being transferred to a transport truck at a distribution facility in Lexington County on July 15, 2009, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. The hose ruptured, causing about 1,800 gallons of the 7,500 gallons on board to spill out.  The anhydrous ammonia created a plume of noxious gas that drifted across nearby U.S. Highway 321. Jacqueline Ginyard, 38, of Wagener, was driving to work when she encountered the cloud, tried to get out of her vehicle and was overcome by the fumes and died, according to Lexington County Coroner Harry Harman.

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