Word: leaks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...countdown to the factory's reopening continued, state officials took drastic precautions to prevent a recurrence of the fatal leak. Throughout the detoxification process, which was to be undertaken only during daylight hours, a helicopter was to circle 200 ft. above the plant. At even the slightest sign of a gas escape, the pilot, protected by a special oxygen mask, would release up to 317 gal. of water to degrade the lethal chemical. If more water were needed, two more helicopters would come to the rescue. All around the facility, blinking lights were set up to help guide...
...those ten problems may have contributed to the recent tragedy. Company officials insisted that nine of the deficiencies had been corrected by last June. A safety valve on a methyl isocyanate storage tank was still malfunctioning, they conceded, but it was nowhere near the tank that caused the disastrous leak. The firm did acknowledge that no U.S. supervisor had visited the Bhopal plant since the 1982 inspection, and no major audit of the facility had been undertaken in more than two years...
...lawyers, who under standard contingency-fee arrangements in the U.S. can earn 30% of the awards they win in a personal-injury case, are hoping to turn the Bhopal gas leak into the most profitable disaster ever. Mega-claims have already been brought against Union Carbide in a number of U.S. jurisdictions where the company does business. Belli is seeking $15 billion in a class action filed in Charleston, W. Va. The Santa Monica, Calif., law firm Gould & Sayre has put in a $20 billion class-action claim in New York City. Coale & Associates of Washington expects to represent thousands...
Still, Institute has no police department, only a volunteer fire department. There are wind socks at the plant to indicate the direction taken by an inadvertent leak, but none in residential areas. And the present plant warning system has left many people utterly confused. Says White: "If there are two blasts from the whistles that means a fire or emergency in the plant. If there are three blasts that means a gas release in the plant. If there are blasts every three seconds that means there's a danger for the people outside the plant...
Only a year and a half ago, the usually brimming California treasury had sprung a leak. Reeling from the revenue losses caused by Proposition 13 and brutalized by the recession, California was facing a deficit of $500 million. The state took drastic measures. It cut or froze social programs across the board and shrank its work force by 4,000. Energy spending was cut back sharply. Tax loopholes were plugged. Today, with its revenues buoyed by the recovery, California expects a budget surplus of anywhere from $889 million to $1.26 billion for the fiscal year ending next June...