Monday morning around 9:04 a.m., there was a chlorine leak at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant.
According to the City of Jackson, on-site safety personnel were notified of an alarm at the water treatment plan in Jackson.
Officials identified a chlorine leak in the chemical building. Everyone was evacuated from the building immediately.
The chemical building is designed to have air scrubbers to keep chlorine from leaving the structure and reportedly worked as designed. Ridgeland Fire Department, Jackson Fire Department Hazmat Team, and O.B. Curtis Maintenance Staff identified three leaking valves and secured the area.
No other evacuations were necessary. Jim Craig, MSDH Incident Commander stated,
“The chemical building at O.B. Curtis is an area where increased focused needs to occur to abate additional safety hazards. We continually work to improve the safety of this facility. While this was a chlorine leak, the Mississippi State Department of Health engineers monitored the water disinfection during the leak; the disinfection process was uninterrupted, water being distributed to the public is still safe for consumption as long as you follow MSDH precautions,”
