Train Derailment spills 30,000 - 95,000 gallons of sulfuric acid into Fort Loudon Lake in Tennessee

[dahunan]

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2 MILLION VISITORS
The 55-mile-long lake has about 360 miles of shoreline, with a total of 14,600 acres of surface area. The environmentally sensitive watershed covers more than 9,500 square miles. The main tributaries for Fort Loudon Lake are the Holston River, French Broad River, and Little Tennessee River. More than 2 million people visit the lake every year, according to the Fort Loudon-Tellico Lake information Web site.
Sulfuric acid has many uses as a strong oxidizer and a powerful dehydrating agent. It is generally used for making fertilizers, car batteries, petroleum refining, paints and pigments, processing metals, and consumer products like rayon and wood preservatives.
The oily, water-soluble liquid can destroy flesh in its concentrated form, as well as causing blindness. The acid reacts violently when combined with water, and the energy released can be enough to heat the mixture to boiling, forming a highly toxic gas that can damage the lungs. The gas may have carcinogenic properties. About 40 million tons are produced annually, according to Chemical and Engineering News.

Geesh, can't wait til they start shipping all the Nuclear Waste to Yucca Mountain

 

[Rallispec]

ouch.. thats gonna leave a mark

 

[SilverThief]

:|

 

[Aves]

Originally posted by: SilverThief
:|

I know what you mean.

 

[fatbaby]

at least it wasn't water into sulfuric acid!

 

[Freejack2]

Acid burned fish anyone?

 

[Valinos]

I only live about 20 miles from there too.

It is kinda odd, I was talking to my friend about my science project in 11th grade today. I was testing the effects of sulfuric acid on plant growth. Then like 30 minutes later I saw this on television :Q

 

[StattlichPassat]

Sounds like it's time for a swim!

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

at least it wasn't water into sulfuric acid!

How's that . . .

 

[PsychoAndy]

I wonder if the worlds largest box of baking soda is being flown in....

-PAB

 

[Aquaman]

I wonder if they are going to dump in a load of nutralizer in that lake........... something cheap like baking soda would but you sure would need a lot of baking soda to nutraize 30K-90K gallons of acid

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Aquaman]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy
I wonder if the worlds largest box of baking soda is being flown in....

-PAB

Doh

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[fatbaby]

Originally posted by: BaliBabyDoc

at least it wasn't water into sulfuric acid!

How's that . . .

it reacts violently with the water and produces sulphur oxide and other toxic fumes

when diluting sulfuric acid, you always pour it slowly into the solute (water, and not vice versa)

 

[eakers]

Originally posted by: fatbaby
at least it wasn't water into sulfuric acid!

hahahahahahahaha

hehe
in her death she looked quite placid
added water to the acid
had she done just what she ought'r
added acid to the water

 

[N8Magic]

Originally posted by: Aquaman
I wonder if they are going to dump in a load of nutralizer in that lake........... something cheap like baking soda would but you sure would need a lot of baking soda to nutraize 30K-90K gallons of acid

Cheers,
Aquaman

No kidding.

Considering everything stronger than 100% sulfuric acid is considered a superacid, it's some nasty stuff. :Q

 

[CraigRT]

That's really ASS.. hopefully there is something they can do about this... bleh!

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Every half-way decent chemist knows to pour your acid slowly into chilled water . . . but in the TN case I'm not sure you would expect any difference. An accident resulting in the RAPID combination of acid and water WILL be quite exothermic and rapidly release a lot of gas. When you pour it out (puddle of this plus a puddle of that) the rules of bench chemistry (designed to protect the ignorant) aren't nearly as applicable.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

GOOD JOB READING THE ARTICLE

None of the liquid acid spilled, contrary to initial reports from the scene.

 

[kgraeme]

From the article:

Nine cars of the 25-car train derailed on a Norfolk Southern track, rupturing one car that was carrying about 93,000 pounds of sulfuric acid, Devlin said.

None of the liquid acid spilled, contrary to initial reports from the scene. Devlin said crews were preparing to neutralize the acid but first wanted to determine what other chemicals were on the train.

 

[StattlichPassat]

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n1
GOOD JOB READING THE ARTICLE

None of the liquid acid spilled, contrary to initial reports from the scene.

Ohhhhh!!

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Do what you aughter, acid to water.

 

[Balthazar]

hehehe this is a hilarious thread....

 

[SgtZulu]

Now all they need to do is add some big lead plates and they'll have one giant car battery.

 

[shiner]

A similar thing happened here about 12 years ago. A tanker truck carrying some form of acid, sulfuric I think, ran off a bridge over a lake and it just happened to go off the middle of the bridge and submerge completely in about 40 ft of water. The Corp of Engineers sent some robotic cameras down to see if the tank was still in one piece and not leaking. It wasn't so they left it there and it took them nearly 6 months to decide what to do about it. They finally decided to raise it and did so without incident.

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: NuclearFusi0n1
GOOD JOB READING THE ARTICLE

None of the liquid acid spilled, contrary to initial reports from the scene.

MSNBC has EDITED the INITIAL article ****REPEAT - INITIAL ARTICLE

So, for those who chose to criticize the messenger - too bad.....

I brought you the article that had the initial statements from local authorities saying "SPILLED"

NOW the article has been edited. Ask member Valinos
who watched it unfold on television because he lives 20 miles from there - they initially reported a SPILL

You guys are so mean