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Dow promises better communication if there's another emergency

7 years 3 months 1 week ago Wednesday, December 07 2016 Dec 7, 2016 December 07, 2016 5:44 PM December 07, 2016 in News
Source: WBRZ

PLAQUEMINE- Iberville Parish leaders said they had a productive meeting with officials at Dow today. That meeting centered on the need for better communication during an emergency.

"If a gnat pees, I want to know about it," Iberville Parish President Mitch Ourso said.

Ourso said officials were starving for information on Friday when a chlorine leak occurred on Dow's property. A third party company, Olin Corporation maintains the chlorine plant. Officials in Iberville said a call was never made by Dow to keep them abreast of what was going on. Leaders in Iberville Parish said that goes against protocols.

"They didn't say they made a mistake," Ourso said. "Let's say, we have learned."

Iberville Parish Sheriff Brett Stassi said the first indication that something was wrong came from his deputies working at the site. However, he said even they couldn't get information.

"When these problems happen, we need to make sure we are notified first to help the people inside the facility to make sure the citizens in our parish are safe," Stassi said.

Today, there were promises that what happened on Friday won't ever happen again.
Dow refused to do an interview, but released the following statement,"We appreciate Iberville Parish officials meeting with us so quickly. As we said before, Dow made all appropriate reports with regulatory agencies. There was good dialogue from both sides this morning on how we can improve communication in an ever changing world of technology and social media." 

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