The chief of the St. Clair Township Fire Department says there was a communications breakdown following an ammonia leak at CF Industries Nitrogen Complex south of Courtright Thursday morning.
Walt Anderson says notice from the Chemical Valley Emergency Coordinating Organization at 6:45am made mention of a gas release but they only learned it involved ammonia after receiving a call from U.S. Homeland Security about reports of a strong odour in Marine City Michigan.
"We've talked to the management on site and they're investigating to see where the breakdown came," says Anderson. "They were under the impression that we had been notified of the situation, and we hadn't been notified of the seriousness of it. They did the right thing by going out and blocking the area and everything but the notification for us kind of fell down and they're investigating it."
Plant General Manager Amanda Pascavage says the leak was detected around 6:30am at their urea plant and proper notification was given.
"We did notify appropriately our local emergency response personnel. The Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Labour are on our contact list."
Company employees blocked off Bickford and Stanley Lines as a precaution but no OPP roadblocks ever went up.
Winds were calm and there was heavy humidity and fog at the time.
CF officials say there were no injuries. The urea plant has been shutdown and the cause of the leak is under investigation.
