Fuel Spill at Flat Rock

[Danny]

There have been some hard news about the potential gasoline spill into the sewers in Flat Rock give a 'sweet-stink' odor that could be flammable. The big blame is at the Ford Flat Rock Assembly Plant. Fewer people had to be evacuated. What an urban mess and Ford Motor Company will pay for this mess.

Here is the source.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...d-evacuations/

[Jimaz]

This started about four days ago. Early reports were gasoline but now they're saying benzene, a carcinogen. There were some evacuations. One report of a door knock at 1AM to check a basement. Officials seemed really concerned about this.

[jcole]

the evacuation areas are split up into two zones: Zone 1, which includes the area bounded by interstate 75 to the east, gibraltar road to the north, cahill road to the west and woodruff road to the south. Officials recommend anyone in zone 1 evacuate.
zone 2 includes the area of gibraltar road to the north, sheeks road to the west, east huron river drive to the south, and tamarack road to the east, as well as buildings along woodruff between east huron river drive and cahill road. Zone 2 is also being investigated for potential exposure.

[Dumpling]

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...-strange-odor/

This is a bit off topic but I would sometimes travel through this
intersection on the commute home. It is kind of a long light
for Dearborn Street travelers. Very often in the last few months
I would smell natural gas at that intersection while waiting
for the light to change.

To be sure I did not collect any evidence or report the odor
to DTE at the time. Considered it but thought that
it was so strong folks at the dispensary there had to have
noticed it and reported it. There are some DTE fixtures
not too far from that location.

That building that is now a dispensary was a plating facility
for many years before becoming vacant and then a
dispensary.

[MikeM]

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...-strange-odor/

This is a bit off topic but I would sometimes travel through this
intersection on the commute home. It is kind of a long light
for Dearborn Street travelers. Very often in the last few months
I would smell natural gas at that intersection while waiting
for the light to change.

To be sure I did not collect any evidence or report the odor
to DTE at the time. Considered it but thought that
it was so strong folks at the dispensary there had to have
noticed it and reported it. There are some DTE fixtures
not too far from that location.

That building that is now a dispensary was a plating facility
for many years before becoming vacant and then a
dispensary.

I noticed that gas pipeline regulator site as well, just across the tracks.

GLWA's North Interceptor-East Arm runs under Fort, but not down Dearborn.

Kinder Morgan Utopia pipeline carries liquid ethane from Ohio to Windsor, but I think it passes a few blocks south of this location.

Salt mine brine?

[Dumpling]

Would you happen to know if DTE or a related entity uses the salt mine area to store natural gas? For me it was a distinct natural gas odor. And it was fairly strong, too, not a faint whiff. The comparable for a water main break is one that flooded the entire street not the trickle in the gutter. Wasn't there, but I imagine maybe the dispensary called about the odor when it first occurred and someone checked their facility and determined that the dispensary was not the source of the natural gas leak. It seemed to be an infrastructure leak. It could be detected all the way from Dearborn street down to the piping close to the Fort Street bridge.

[Dumpling]

Should maybe start a different thread for this one. I'd like to
point out that at 1:20 in the following video with the interview
with the Stash manager Nick Thomas one can see wavy fumes
if one looks at the 25 mph sign behind the buckled Dearborn
Street paving next to the Stash dispensary.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...hwest-detroit/

That amount of wavy fumes is closer to a completely flooded
street rather than a trickle in the gutter.

If natural gas has been stored in a disused salt mine this may
be what was intended to keep us all warm this coming winter.

UPDATE: according to the following map the salt mines near
Dearborn Street are not used for natural gas storage.

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/M...ap_19273_7.pdf

[bust]

Dumpling, I trust your nose way more than I do DTE, who presumably would be liable if this were the result of their faulty infrastructure. Natural gas is odorless until it is given a fragrance unlike any other so we can distinguish when there's a gas leak.

Problems like this will only get more common as gas pipelines, many of them abandoned, continue to deteriorate. Did they ever determine what abandoned pipeline was the source of the major oil spill off the shore of Louisiana after Ida?

It's a shame there are so many abandoned pipelines around there. The most beautiful beaches in North America are on the Gulf Coast too.

Yet another debt that will be passed on to the young, and to future generations. What a gas.

[Dumpling]

Here's the thing: there was/is a gas leak there more than
likely. It is probably causing the damage but this has not
been confirmed.

ON the other hand! There was not a massive explosion
heard for miles blowing the dispensary to far flung shreds
and leaving a hundred foot high pillar of flame in its wake.
So I would take it that if DTE says there was no explosion
this is what they mean by that. There was no explosion
in that most destructive sense.

There was something that really should have been taken
care of sooner though. Multiple people had been noticing
the gas odor and reporting it.

[MikeM]

The gas smell [[ethyl mercaptan) was probably the result of a leak caused by whatever caused the ground upheaval. The witness reports of fluid looking like lemonade is interesting.