A valve failure on a Kirby Inland Marine barge led to the release of a vapor cloud at Targa Resources' docking terminal in the Houston Ship Channel, causing an urgency that was felt at the industrial heart of Galena Park. According to Click2Houston report, the incident was first acknowledged by Targa Resources on Thursday last week around 4 p.m. and prompted actions to contain and manage the situation. While activity around the facility may be visible to the community, there are no impacts outside the site at this time.
A precautionary closure of a section of the ship channel by the Coast Guard was notably executed. Kirby Inland Marine, took ownership of the situation, confirming that the gas released was butadiene, a colorless gas widely used industrially. This confirmation came amidst the emergency response and mitigation efforts as noted, by Kirby Inland Marine.
The situation, while alarming, was declared as non-threatening to the surrounding community by the City of Galena Park. There were no shelter-in-place orders issued, and the Harris County Office of Emergency Services corroborated that no air quality threats had been detected, as noted by abc13. Consequently, no injuries were reported by Port Houston in the incident’s aftermath.
Following the mitigation efforts, the valve malfunction was managed and the leaked vapor ceased by late last night. The barge was subsequently moved to another facility belonging to Kirby Inland Marine. Eary this morning, the Houston Ship Channel had resumed its normal operations. This swift return to normalcy follows after the Coast Guard's reopening of the waterway around 3 a.m.
