'It fails' or 'it blows up': 2 options left for toxic chemical leak in Garden Grove, officials say

[chowder66]

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (KABC) -- Emergency crews are sending an urgent warning that a chemical leak coming from a large storage tank at a Garden Grove aerospace facility could cause a spill or explosion.

Authorities are calling the toxic chemical leak in Garden Grove a "crisis situation," triggering evacuation orders for roughly 40,000 residents and school closures.

AIR7 video from overhead on Friday afternoon shows unmanned fire hoses and an automatic sprinkler system spraying water on the overheated tank, which is facing a potential catastrophic failure.

The tank at GKN Aerospace is carrying a highly toxic and flammable chemical used to make plastics. Now, fire crews say the tank is going to fail in one of two ways: either with a spill of thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals or an explosion. Authorities just don't know when or how it will end.

more at link....including video
https://abc7.com/post/tank-spews-toxic-chemicals-garden-grove-prompting-evacuation-orders/19150431/

[orthoclad]

1. "Plastics!" he whispered

Now that power tech is (slightly) moving away from burning fossil sunlight, the petrogarchs had to find another use for those hydrocarbons, especially from fracked gas. Voila! Flood the zone with plastic!

Remember the vinyl chloride disaster in Ohio.

Follow the money.

edit: subject line is lame The Graduate reference. Plastic has sandwiched my life time. I remember when "plastic" was the worst of insults.

[Melon]

4. This is...I just don't know lol. This take is just not it.

I work in chemicals and have spent time in a methyl methacrylate plant. This is MMA. It’s downstream from either acetone or more likely propianaldehyde. In the US, this is downstream from Ethylene cracked from gas. Fracking is the reason that the US still has manufacturing and also why our energy costs are lower versus much of the world.

This is the product that’s made into acrylic. All of those clear plastic screens in front of the grocery checkout are acrylic. It’s also the thick plastic used in large aquariums, bullet proof glass etc. I’d love to hear how the “petrogarchs” eliminating our access to acrylic makes our lives better? It’s lighter than glass, stronger, and doesn’t require strip mining to produce.

MMA improperly stored or having a contaminant in the tank can cause polymerization. The liquid is basically cross linking in the tank to transform into another chemical. The waste product to that reaction is heat.

The tank is too far gone and is exponentially building heat and pressure. They can cool the tank but not stop the reaction. At some point the tank can’t handle the pressure and will rupture or explode. At this point, for safety, it’s best to turn on the hoses and back all emergency crew away. If it happens it happens. There iso no stopping it.

[ultralite001]

2. Never forgotten...

Y'all stay safe, SoCal... Garden Grove, Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress, Stanton and Westminster.
Disneyland is outside of the evacuation zone.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-22/why-garden-grove-chemical-explosion-could-be-so-catastrophic

[IcyPeas]

3. Plastic is polluting the entire world

What is the toxic chemical in the tank?

The chemical in the tank is called methyl methacrylate (MMA). It is a highly toxic, volatile, and flammable chemical. According to the EPA, it is used to make resins and plastics.

[IcyPeas]

5. Watching local news...

They said this company use the product in airplane parts... including transparencies such as the windows in planes... military and commercial.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. The polymer of methyl methacrylate is known as Plexiglas, Lucite, or Perspex. It's both stiff and transparent.

MMA is also used to make co-polymers, with various improved properties (relative to pMMA) including with other methacrylates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poly(methyl_methacrylate)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_methacrylate

MMA is used in many resins, glues, etc. If you've ever cast transparent plastics for hobby projects (paperweights were popular at one time) it's probably MMA you worked with.

For the purposes of fire control, the worst thing about may be its low boiling point (100 C) -- comparable to many common flammable solvents, more volatile than gasoline or kerosene.

[IcyPeas]

11. Thank you.

Lucite and plexiglass are much more understandable examples of what it is.

Resin is quite the fad for hobbyists and crafters these days.

........

Last I heard the water may be starting to cool the tanks down now.

Question: couldn't the water spray be toxic? Do you know?

[eppur_se_muova]

12. God knows what that water is absorbing, but MMA itself is slightly water-soluble.

Everything which has been stuck on the outside of that tank has been cooked and now leached off. I'm sure the plant has provisions for runoff -- it will have to be handled as toxic waste.

If you ever visit a chemical plant, you'll see they tend to be broken up into 'islands' separated by berms. Pipelines make double-dogleg turns to carry fluids from one island to another and can be closed by motorized valves in an emergency. Catwalks help workers move around, while vehicles take roads between -- every point must be accessible to fire truck. In the event of a spill, the berms help confine fluids to some extent, to minimize the spread of flames. Obviously NOT perfect; there tend to be no small chemical plant fires !

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Obvious question: what's up with the emergency vent valve ? Who builds a storage tank without one ? n t

[Melon]

10. It has one. It likely broke from pressure

Or the polymerization in the tank is occurring faster than the vents can keep up.