A yellow-orange gas cloud rose over Dimitrovgrad after an accident at the fertilizer plant “Neochim“. The incident occurred at around 9:50 a.m. and was caused by a valve control failure in the installation for the production of 60 percent nitric acid.
The failure triggered the emergency shutdown of the installation. For about 2-3 minutes, nitrogen oxides were released from the chimney, which appeared as a yellow-orange cloud, visible from different parts of the city. Footage of the release was distributed by residents of Dimitrovgrad.
The operator “Neochim“ AD has notified the competent authorities, and the Regional Inspectorate for Environment and Water in Haskovo has carried out an inspection. The environmental inspectorate reported: “No exceedances of the standards for atmospheric air quality have been registered“.
Data from the automatic measuring station “Rakovski“ in Dimitrovgrad do not show exceedances of the regulated values for ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, fine dust particles PM10 and ozone for the period from the beginning of the day until the provision of the information.
At the moment, there are no reported data on injured people or the need for evacuation. The confirmed cause of the incident is the failure in the valve control, which led to the emergency stop and the brief release of nitrogen oxides.
Sources: bnrnews.bg, marica.bg, trud.bg