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Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Information about the Hi-lex Company and their request for a Conditional Use Permit. - 3/11/1996Fo ‘-bER Secro\LS ear of pOssible'diasterleads 'City Councillo .nix . chemical ;storage plan ,‘:(vti,1&„ • By BRENDA HAUGEN .facility. .1 710 At present, about 450 trucks Recent traini'4.:derailments '1,.per year bring raw materials to around the counY3i'and: fear of ,',':: Hi-lex's - Eagan Site at:i990 what such anevent : could ' Apollo Road:, accord,t mean to the city of Eagan led H' the City Cou1 to unani, mously deny a conditional use permit (CUP) for Hi-lex Corpo- ration for chemical storage in rail cars adjacent to the Eagan •-• • ..... a ., ex. representative. The CUP :1 would; alloW the company to ;. change from. the 450 trucks to 18 tank cars, which "is done (See Chemicals, p. 7A) (Continued from front page) • universally in the industry," he said. Hi-lex Corporation's present facility Was build in 1972. Ac- cording to the city staff's re- port, the Purex Corporation re- p ceived City Council approval r of a CUP for the exterior stor- age of chlorine and sodium by-' iv droxide in 1986. Similar to the tr present case, the 1986 CUP was for storage of chlorine in a st rail car on the railroad spur ad-, jacent to the facility, and so- m dim hydroxide' in a 75,000 gallon•tank at the south end of the building. The conditional use was never exercised, • though, and the CUP expired in 1987. • The Hi-lex Corporation came to Eagan site in 1988 from St. Paul. Hi-lex currently receives chemicals by•truck in .a diluted . W� form. The chemicals are stored ' sev in two 9,S00-gallon and three . "I 6,500-gallon holding . tanks in wo the facility until the batching rail ., process occurs, according : to said the staff report. Products pro- " Acc duced by Hi-lex at the Eagan . W site: have included liquid abou bleach, fabric softener, ammo- coul nia, farm and dairy . sanitizer, adde windshield washer solvent, "(I wood and deck cleaner and RV ter,"( marine anti -freeze, according " Co to the report. While the City Council did c ee approve a CUP, in 1986, much needs hasgan. in the - today , changed in Eawhen Chemicals last 10 years, said Mayor Tor Egan. More is known about er vironmental impacts, and mor people' live and work near th Hi-lex :facility, he said. ' A representative of We. ublishing pointed out that th ail cars would contain pur chlorine, not the 85 percer ater solution that comes in o ucks. "Chlorine is a very, toxicsut ance," he said. West Publishing is within ile of the Hi-lex facility, ' and if West — a seven -day -a week, 24-hour-a-day operatic') — needed to be evacuated, i would lose customers who ex pect service at their, fingertips he said. Council Member .Shawn ,Hunter said there was a train derailment in his hometown sconsin recently as, well a eral others nationally. .• am deathly afraid •of whr uld happen in Eagan" if accident. were 'to occur,. h . "1 am concerned about i idents do happen.". - ith Eagan's population t 56,000, such an accider. d be devastating,. . Hunte d. . • • ,• t) would be a major disas he said.: uncil . Member • Te( hter . said the . counci. to look at the situation ,.not that of 10 years agc the•, first. CUP Iwas. ap- ................... n proved for this site. And --though I-. no derailments have happened e in Eagan, that doesn't mean it e . never will happen, Wachter said. ;t "The. possibility is still e there," he said. e Council Member Pat Awada i' it said the'potential for . disaster n is much greater with the rail cars than with the trucks. With �- the rail , cars, several times more chemicals will be on -site a than are found there now, she said. "You'd have to evacuate huge sections of Eagan,"t . Awada said if there were an accident with a rail car carry_ •, ing the chemicals. Fo‘z efk tN IDS