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<br /> ~~st -_.,,t _ ohOfice ?o regulate t,, ~gen sut~de ht~:;/wrny.chrOn.corti~~OntenUchrran~delpapeL'~7%1 ?/OyRQs.rna;~ n,,,i,
<br /> _ . number ufpeaple ir? its pa(n, including a woman drivinb across a bridge neatly ii~~e miles
<br /> a:~..
<br /> a.'y ttt~ ncsa dati, Debbie Nickelson and her family awoke with headaches and nausea "We the tight it
<br /> ~ni..hr `,e ~ hoc." said Nickelson, who runs achy-care center out of her basemont and was preparing 0;
<br /> it;; intm~~atr,tt arrival of Eve young children
<br /> four of the fig e ware overcame later that morning by hydrogen sulfide, which had accumulated overnight
<br /> in toe basement, and were taken to the hospital. The fifth didn't stay long enough to feel any efl°ects
<br /> "!t was really srary~," Nickelson said "They were basically just passing out One little girl Lind of went ':o
<br /> sleep One little boy passed out on the kitchen fluor, he started to vomit as he passed out I had anotl-~et
<br /> little hoy with asthma he was havring great difTiculty breathing."
<br /> NO one had hothcred to at n the Nicl.elsons or anyone else about the gas leak, th:;se closast to it
<br /> evacuated on their ow r,, out of necessity. ""fhe kids, they play downstairs by themselves sometimes,"
<br /> Debbie ;~~ic,l.elson said "V."t,ul;i :hey have died if I hadn't gone down there when I dief'"
<br /> [.Irtpubliried, ,a orst-case scenarios developed Iiy some oil and gas companies indicate that the ~tichi~;an
<br /> victims there far tuna(..
<br /> In a document filed in I'ebruar} with the Texas Railroad Commission, for example, representative:; of the
<br /> warren ^!GL Inc sour gas prncesstng plant near the East Texas fount of C-ustace offered theie b•~st guess
<br /> about the impacts of a catastrophic pipeline rupture
<br /> 0. cloud with lethal le, ets of hydrogen sulfide (SOG palls per rnilliun} would move up to •i 3 miles frortt
<br /> the pant, the}' predicted, and a 100-ppm loud Capable ofcausing serious illness up tc 9.3 miles
<br /> Hy~lt,~gen sulfide need ?ot bG discharged in high concentrations, howevar, to do harm It can, ovctt ri~nr
<br /> impair quality t;f life at lei:els deemed safr ba most regulators.
<br /> Its v`frnste oih~r nas mined property ,~ah[cs and hteatlly drivr_n pe~~ple from their homes There i5
<br /> evidence that ;t';as hampered young students' perf.~nnance in the classroom.
<br /> E*.±ren~cl~t corm>i~w, it has consumed barbed-hire fences and thG copper entrails of air co~~didoars ~ln~i
<br /> it .ontinues !o kill poorl~~ trained or careless workers
<br /> Chrnpan} repurt> ?o the [:PA's Em~.rgenc} Response Notification System show that there wera 1
<br /> atciacntal relca.~es ofhydrogcn sulfide nationwide during the first Winn months of 1997. Fifty-four per:cn:
<br /> 10' of thc~e t~rre i~t Texas.
<br /> much mi;;haps aren't the worst of it In Tome parts of the Gauntry, routine, legal hydrogen sulfide
<br /> tmis~~ion, d~..n i accidental releases
<br /> 1;:~ I~+`)~, f.,r example. the old Farmland Inct~.istries Oil refinery in l'ofCGyville, Kan, put out R-1G_t~Cill
<br /> D~4. 1!'~ Uf [t1C ~~b_''ili~.l~ tt Uti It Uf thG i7lltiOd;)1 OUP t}dS X111Gd U? thf Cily'S lUw-i71COI17C CH~i ~I (~t'
<br /> _F. ,i::~ ~i~~.irt ,:rr t,,_ot~lr, nuux ys~J 'yid. rta Ae~ttc, wig„ runs n ~Iat--care cen?rr ;r the
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