Arson and chemical storage violations by Bytemite

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Arson and chemical storage violations

POSTED BY: BYTEMITE
UPDATED: Thursday, January 9, 2025 20:42
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 4:28 AM

Here's something interesting going on in my neck of the woods... This story potentially links pharmaceutical companies WITH the War on Drugs, though the whole thing is actually pretty shady.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13302695

Added bonus in me being vaguely familiar with the site and the area around it.

General gist of the article is that there's a bunch of mishandled toxic waste stored on a site down in an industrial area near Provo, Utah. The toxic waste in question is petroleum products related to gasoline, as well as some chlorinated solvents, none of which I'm aware of have any use in manufacturing pharmaceuticals, and all of which are highly explosive.

In 1992, there was a fire at the site, and, well, thousands of explosive drums plus fire...?

But on TOP of all this, the owner of the property claims to have been helping an undercover operation to sell chemicals to the black market to help in the creation of illegal stimulants. The owner claims that the fire was set in response to his refusal to collaborate in the operation further.

What do you all make of this?

I think it's very likely the owner is not aware of standards governing the proper storage of hazardous waste; this is quite common in industrial areas in Utah, so it's also likely that this site is as bad as reported, this sort of thing usually isn't exaggerated.

However, I would also not be surprised if the arson really WAS retribution for non-compliance, and that likely the landowner was chosen in particular for the operation BECAUSE of the poor conditions of the site. The poor conditions of the site could have been used to force compliance through threat of fines and would have been easily exploitable.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:19 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. I'm not necessarily a conspiracy buff, but have seen enough stuff around HERE involving toxic waste, and there's Erin Brockovich to challenge our trust, as well as sooo many others, wouldn't surprise me at all.

Sicken me, tho'...

________________________
Together we are greater than the sum of our parts

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:31 AM

BYTEMITE

Well, there's maybe an Erin Brockovich factor here in the sense of the contamination, which is something I *AM* concerned about, but actually, there's FAR, FAR worse sites than this in Utah. Don't even get me started on a little residential development called Daybreak, or the activity of "Energy Solutions" trucking in foreign nuclear waste... And unlike Erin Brockovich, this guy isn't trying to HIDE his wrongdoings from an endangered public and the affected development, he's just clueless.

The icing on this story is the arson and the bizarre involvement with Pharmaceutical companies, the FBI, and the War on Drugs. That's the part that's eyebrow raising, at least for me.

Is the owner full of crap, and his storage resulted in unsafe conditions, causing the fire? Methanol is noted to combust at room temperature if improperly stored. And yet, investigation did confirm it was a case of arson. If so, who are the perpetrators? Did Federal Investigators set this fire, as the owners claim?

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:43 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

That whole thing of being an informant sounds like so much guano.

For companies on the verge of insolvency... or just looking to make a few extra bucks... its lucrative to provide "waste disposal" or "chemical storage" facilities. AND it's common for these sites to go up in flames. In the past two years we've had three emergency responses for illegal waste/ storage sites. One was an illegal toxic landfill set up by a small tribal group (much to the dismay of the tribe as a whole), one was a dairy farmer who provided interim storage site for bales of recyclable plastics destined for China, and one was a small paint formulator struggling in hard times.

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:54 AM

BYTEMITE

Hmm.

That sounds reasonable. Like I said, the stored hazardous material doesn't have anything to do with pharmaceuticals. If that represents the waste stream of the business, then why would they be providing the pharmaceutical companies with anything?

Still, it's an interesting story. I bet PN and Frem would love it. It's odd that the article presents the the man's informant status as a fact, not that "he claims to be an informant."

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:05 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

FWIW these solvents are used in making meth: acetone, methanol, isopropanol, benzene, toluene, Freon and ether, nail polish remover (acetone), fuel additives like HEET (methanol), rubbing alcohol (isopropanol).

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:14 AM

BYTEMITE

Really!

Hold on, I have Utah State clandestine drug lab handbook.

Yeah, you're right, Red Phosphorous Method and Birch method both use methanol, ethanol, toluene and freon, Red Phosphorous also uses acetone and benzene.

What are those claims that the pharmaceutical industry is involved, I wonder? I know that meth labs sometimes cook pharmaceuticals to get some of the needed chemicals out, like how people were getting amphetamines out of allergy medication.

This site is associated with Geneva Steel, itself a big clean-up site. That may explain better how the petroleum products got to be stored on site... But I don't get it. The article said there's a connection to pharmaceutical companies. Where is the connection, if the pharmaceuticals aren't selling the drugs TO the site to help with the operation?

Well, assuming the guy IS an informant. The article seems to say he is, but could be that's just poor wording.

Maybe I can find similar articles that might clarify...

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:26 AM

BYTEMITE

Here's another version of the article from a different source. May have more information.

Owners of the site are listed as "Parish Chemical Co. of Vineyard and Uintah Pharmaceutical Corp."

http://www.heraldextra.com/business/local/article_903ccc20-e4d5-5f79-b
cbf-e3a3a9012659.html

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Thursday, January 9, 2025 8:42 PM

JAYNEZTOWN

a heatwave and then any kind of spark? when its hot, yet they say store those chemicals and no need for air con... lowest temperature at which it emits sufficient vapors to form an ignitable mixture with air near its surface. Sometimes organic chemistry reactions happen, Pyrite oxidation is often the cause of coal's spontaneous ignition in old mine tailings. Pistachio nuts are highly flammable when stored in large quantities, and are prone to self-heating and spontaneous combustion. Storage of Chemistry you also have sun heating through glass, electric sparks, a thrown cigarette and Fire Point // Auto Ignition Temperature, the stored fuels which have a flash point less than 37.8 °C (100.0 °F) are called flammable, dangers everywhere from Gas to Dry Trees, Plastics, Dry Shrubs, Timbers, Ethanol, Petrol (gasoline) , Fabric Clothing, Kerosene, Biodiesels, Alcohols, Silane, Phosphorus White, Carbon disulfide, Diethyl ether, Natural Gas, Papers, Dry Grass, Dry Bushes. Cuttings of Leaves, Trees, Cow Dung, Pig Waste, Cuttings of Grass, there are Large manure piles can spontaneously combust during conditions of extreme heat. Copra, the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted, Hay can combust, Charcoal, when freshly prepared, can self-heat and catch fire and Nitrate film, when improperly stored, can deteriorate into an extremely flammable condition and you have elctric discharges and lightning strikes.

It's not 'traditional' wildfire season - so why have the California fires spread so quickly?
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/not-traditional-wildfire-season-why-09470081
1.html

Quote:
The majority (85%) of all forest fires across the United States are started by humans, either deliberately or accidentally, according to the US Forest Service.

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