Document 06rq7ZG1Znk88aLK1OKb17EKm

ETHY L X^TEIL XATIOjSTAL DIVISION OF ETHYL CORPORATION P. O. BOX 341 BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA 70821 U. S. A. A ugust 28, 1968 TELEPHONE: 357-4361 D r. R obert A. Kehoe K ettering L aboratory Eden & Bethesda Avenues C incinnati, Ohio 45219 D ear D r. Kehoe: I have read your com m ittee rep o rt w ith g reat in tere st. I w as s u r p r is e d to find in so m e c a se s we ev id en tly did not give you com plete in fo rm atio n . I w ill a tte m p t to give the m issin g in fo rm a tion in this le tte r in ca se you w ish to re v is e your re p o rt. On page 7 in the d is c u s s io n of the s p ill fro m the M /V EID at our D o rd rech t te rm in a l, the w ording in the p a re n th e se s (u n fo rtu nately, nothing has been done, it se e m s, to p rev en t the re o c c u r rence . . . . ) concerns m e greatly because it is m y direct resp o n si bility to see that c o rre c tiv e action is taken. I can a s s u re you that a lot of things w ere done. 1. T he o w n ers of o u r c h a rte re d v e s s e ls h av e had difficulty in finding reliab le B ritish o fficers. I w as d issatisfied with the m a s te r's action when the spill o ccu rred and during the investigation afterw ards. A direct resu lt was a replacem ent of the m a s te r w ith a new m a s te r. We have also been w orking w ith the ow ners to get b e tte r o fficers u n d er the m a s te r and have m ade som e p ro g re ss. 2. . We adopted the double checking p ro ced u re. T his re q u ire s one officer to se t the v alv es and another officer to check the v alv es. A w ritten re p o rt is p rep ared during checking. The second spill should not have o ccu rred with this p ro ced u re except that one of the officers failed to do h is duty. He w as fired im m ediately by the m a ste r. 3. We also adopted the p ro c e d u re that an E thyl re p re se n ta tiv e would be on b oard the ship when the ship m ade d e liv e rie s. The re a so n for the 2- - A u g u s t 2 8 , 1 9 6 8 m in im u m sp ill on the second occasion w as that M r. K orosm ezey, from our B ru sse ls office, was filling this assignm ent and acted quickly when the incident o ccu rred . 4. We have in v estig ated v a rio u s m ethods of piping and valving and in stru m en tatio n to p rev en t a reo ccu rren ce. The best correction we have developed is an instrum entation system w hereby the unloading pum ps w ill not operate if any one of the eight carg o tanks is over filled. T h ere w ill probably be m aintenance p ro b lem s with this sy stem but we plan to in sta ll this a rra n g e m e n t on our th ird v e sse l w hich is being built at p r e sent. If we are successful w ith this arran g em en t, we w ill in sta ll it on the M /V EID. On page 8 the la st p a ra g ra p h d eals w ith m aking long d e liv e rie s by tank tru ck fro m our D o rd rech t te rm in a l to Spain. You a re c o r re c t that the in stallatio n of the te rm in a l at C adiz, Spain elim in ates this long trip . H ow ever, no m ention is m ad e of trucking fluid fro m the D o rd re c h t te rm in a l to Ita ly as we a r e p re s e n tly doing. On p a g e 12 you m e n tio n e d th a t the h o u s e k e e p in g w a s p o o r in the lead re c o v e ry a re a of the G reek plant. I w as s u rp ris e d a t this com m ent becau se on m y s e v e ra l trip s to G re ece, the lead re c o v e ry a re a has been an outstanding exam ple of good housekeeping. On page 18 the n e x t to l a s t p a r a g r a p h r e f e r s to th e c o n ta m in a tion of hoppers w ith v ap o rs fro m the stills. I believe this was intended to be v ap o rs fro m the au to clav es. On page 28 the sta te m e n t is m ad e that our v e s s e ls fo r bulk shipm ent of fluid a re owned by the E thyl C orporation. T hese v e sse ls a re c h a rte re d by the Ethyl C orporation but a re owned by o th e rs . I did not intend to m ake this so lengthly, but I thought you m ight be in terested in the additional inform ation. Sincerely yours, FAM :ns cc: M r. D. E. P ark M r. K. C. Jost M r. M o rris Shonfield F. A. McCoy K ...