Treatment Plant Chemical Spill Hospitalizes 55 People

A chemical spill at a Birmingham (Alabama) Water Works water treatment facility recently hospitalized 55 people. According to the company, the accidental mixing of hypochlorite and ferric sulfate created hazardous chlorine gas. An accidental mix of sodium hypochlorite (which is essentially bleach) and ferric sulfate caused a chlorine off gas at our Shades Mountain Filter Plant. We use these components to treat water as our normal practice, however they are not meant to be mixed together.— BirminghamWaterWorks (@BhamWaterWorks) February 27, 2019Company officials originally stated that 14 contractors and a single company employee had been hospitalized after the spill, but the number of