UPDATE (4:30 p.m.)
Some families are being allowed back into their homes, according to Magellan Midstream Partners, owners of the anyhdrous ammonia pipeline that ruptured Monday night.
The cloud of deadly gas flowing from the pipeline claimed the life of a farmer that night and led to an evacuation 23 households and about 40 people.
According to a statement from Magellan, the evacuation zone has been shrunk to a two-mile radius from the leak. Residents outside that zone are being allowed to return. It's unclear how many people are being allowed back in, or when the remaining families will be able to return home.
Highway 75 and County Road P remain closed at this time.
UPDATE (12:15 p.m.)
The air quality in the area between Tekamah and Decatur still is unsafe and roadblocks remain in place, Eric Weiss, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said at midday Thursday.
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Weiss said there wasn’t an estimated time for an "all clear." Residents likely won't return to their homes Thursday, he said.
The NTSB investigates pipeline accidents. A preliminary report could take weeks to complete, Weiss said. A full report into what happened, why it happened and any recommendations could take up to a year or more, he said.
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DECATUR, Neb. — Steve Chace had just drifted off to sleep Monday evening when the pungent odor of anhydrous ammonia startled him awake.
He lives about 200 feet from a Magellan Midstream Partners pipeline in rural Burt County. Chace, 52, is an environmental consultant, so when the noxious odor of the deadly gas hit his sinuses, he knew what it was.
“The aroma woke me up. It was in my house,” Chace told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “By my second breath it was overwhelming.”
He looked outside. By the treeline where the pipeline runs, smoke bellowed in plumes and back to the ground, like a blackish-gray vaporous oil well.
“This was towering clouds of ammonia vapor,” he said. “It was dark out, but you could see it.”
He called 911. He called Magellan. It was 9:17 p.m.
Then he scooped up some of his things and ran out of his house, as a plume of the roiling vapor flowed across his yard.
Chace related his story following a meeting held by the pipeline company in order to update the roughly 40 evacuees from a rural area south of Decatur. The pipeline leak was discovered Monday night and triggered the evacuation of 23 households.
It also caused the death of Phillip W. Hennig, 59, a farmer who lived nearby who drove into a cloud of the anhydrous ammonia. Funeral services for Hennig will be 10:30 a.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church in Tekamah.
Magellan officials told the group that they would not be able to go home Wednesday, as had been hoped. Instead, the company would try to get them back Thursday evening.
But before that can occur, each home must be tested by an air quality expert.
“Although we have made significant progress ... we are not ready to allow you to go home yet,” said Bruce Heine, Magellan’s director of government and media affairs.
Residents couldn’t return because the company was not done purging the affected section of pipe. The pipe needs to be excavated and the section replaced before evacuees can return, company officials said.
“We are trying to do everything as systematic and as safe as we possibly can,” Heine said.
Magellan representatives reiterated that the company would cover the evacuees’ expenses. Heine also expressed sympathy for the loss of Hennig. “None of the words I can express are appropriate when one of your neighbors has passed away,” he said.
The exact nature of what happened — whether it was a break in the line or a crack — is not known. Officials stressed that there will be a thorough investigation.
The officials fielded a number of questions, many of which they could not answer. Emmett Hennig, 75, a cousin of Phillip Hennig, asked if the company would pressure Phillip Hennig’s wife into a premature settlement.
“This is very delicate for us, as it is for you,” Heine said. “There will be an appropriate time for us to talk to the family.”
Others in the audience mentioned previous pipeline problems. A number of pipelines run under Burt County, and residents recalled leaks and fires over the years. Asked if there had been prior problems on this line (Chace said there had been a tiny pinhole leak in 2013), Heine said he would have to get back with them.
Melissa Simmons, 42, of Lincoln, who grew up in the area, asked about the condition of livestock. Heine said Magellan believes that no livestock has died.
After the meeting, she said she appreciated Magellan’s effort to keep people informed, but she remained concerned. Even if livestock survives being exposed to the gas, will it still be edible? Can its milk and eggs still be consumed?
“It’s a catastrophe. It’s a tragic catastrophe,” she said. “I’m not sure, really, what to think of it.”
Anhydrous ammonia is a commonly used fertilizer in agriculture. It is one of the most dangerous materials that farmers use. Some of those at the meeting recalled their own close calls working with it.
Its danger was in Chace’s mind as he ran from his home Monday night. He said he saw Hennig drive by in a pickup truck and then veer off the road and crash when he entered the cloud of anhydrous ammonia.
Chace said he kept running. With all the suffocating ammonia that must have been in the plume, there was nothing he could do.
“He (was) in an unsurvivable situation,” Chace said. “There is no rescue from that.”
Pelan Funeral Services in Tekamah is handling arrangements for Hennig's service.
andrew.nelson@owh.com, 402-444-1310, twitter.com/nelson_aj
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Leak timeline
» About 9:20 p.m. Monday, the Burt County Sheriff’s Office receives a call about anhydrous ammonia odor in the area of 3310 County Road P.
» At 9:40 p.m., Tekamah Fire and Rescue is dispatched to the ammonia leak. The surrounding area is evacuated.
» Around 10 p.m. (precise time unspecified), Magellan Midstream Partners’ remote sensing system detects a pressure drop on its pipeline in Burt County. The company contacts local authorities.
» At 10:05 p.m., someone calls 911 to say a man is down in the area of the leak.
» In the early morning hours, neighbors are evacuated.
» At 2:25 a.m. Tuesday, Tekamah Fire and Rescue and Nebraska State Patrol hazardous materials crews reach the man and remove him from the area. He is pronounced dead at the scene.
Sources: Burt County Sheriff Robert Pickell, Magellan Midstream Partners
