Chemical Spill Damage: The Red River Rhine

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Recommended: Importance of fire to maintain a healthy ecosystem

Red River Rhine

On November 1st 1986, a fire at the Sandoz chemical warehouse on the Rhine caused the river to run red, and left its ecosystem devastated. This raised awareness in the international forum of the extent of damage that can happen due to chemical spills and prompted substantial changes to the laws surrounding how these facilities operated. In this report I will be looking at the events the unfurled during the spill, the affect that it has had, biologically on the Rhine, and whether the Rhine could even have benefited in some way from this disaster.

The fire stated in the most inauspicious of circumstances. Workers were packaging Prussian Blue (Iron(II, III)hexacyanoferrate(II, III)), a deep blue pigment, using a blow torch and plastic sheet. Unbeknown to them, the compound, which burns with a colourless flame, had caught fire during this process. The fire was first discovered around midnight, and the alarm was immediately raised. Fire services immediately rushed to the scene to put out the blaze, but were greeted by more problems still, as it had grown too large for the usage of foam extinguishers (Angeletti and Bjørseth et al., 1988, pp. 128-131) , which are the traditional treatment for a chemical fire, so water was used instead. The fire had to be extinguished fast, as nearby chemical stores contained phosgene, a valuable reagent in the production of isocyanates, which are, among other things, used in the production of polyurethane tubing. Phosgene is unfortunately also highly hazardous in gaseous form, being odourless up to 0.4ppm, which is four times the level at which it can be fatal (cdc.gov, 1978). The efforts to stop the fire lead to a figure of around 30 tons of agricultural chemicals, mostly pesticide...

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...ed to its former glory. Max Planck Research, Iss. B20396F pp. 55-57.

Froehlich-Schmitt, B. 2003. Outcome of the Rhine Action Programme. Koblenz: International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine.

Iksr.org. 2013. ICPR | International Cooperation»Rhine 2020»Salmon 2020. [online] Available at: http://www.iksr.org/index.php?id=124&L=3&ignoreMobile=1 [Accessed: 6 Jan 2014].

Boyce, D. 2011. Swimmers unaware of dangerous bacteria in Rhine | Environment | DW.DE | 29.08.2011. [online] Available at: http://www.dw.de/swimmers-unaware-of-dangerous-bacteria-in-rhine/a-15345428 [Accessed: 7 Jan 2014].

Bayer.com. 2013. Research at Bayer - Bayer. [online] Available at: http://www.bayer.com/en/research-at-bayer.aspx [Accessed: 7 Jan 2014].

Fischer, C., Lehner, M. and Mckinnon, D. L. 2012. Overview of the use of landfill taxes in Europe. Copenhagen: ETC/SCP.

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