Residents in five Sugar Land neighborhoods and students at five schools were warned to stay indoors with windows shut and air conditioners off early Monday afternoon, after a chemical spill at the Nalco Holding Co. plant on U.S. 90A.
The shelter-in-place warning was lifted by about 2:40 p.m. – about 45 minutes after it was issued, according to a Sugar Land police spokeswoman. It had been issued for Brookside Belknap, Venetian Estate, The Hill, Hall Lake and Mayfield Park, and also for nearby schools.
Jeannie Gage, of the Sugar Land Police Department, said she looked out of her office window at police headquarters on State Highway 6 at about 1:45 p.m. and saw what appeared to be vapor from a large chemical spill.
“At one point it looked like a big pure-white mushroom cloud,” she said. Then it expanded. Gage said it appeared to be “thick,” and hung low to the ground, adding that it gradually moved from west to east.
Nalco officials could not immediately be reached for information about the nature of the spill, but Sugar Land emergency management officials were quoted in a KHOU TV-11 report as saying a tanker truck at the plant had been leaking ethylene diamine.
A statement from Fort Bend Independent School District said the plant had experienced “a fire from an unknown origin,” and said the district agreed with city emergency management officials to shelter students “in place” at Lakeview Elementary, Sugar Mill Elementary, Sugar Land Middle School, Kempner High School and M.R. Wood.
Sugar Land police closed down roadways leading to the plant, including U.S. 90A from Highway 6 to Eldridge. By 3 p.m., cross streets, including Brooks at U.S. 90A, had been reopened.
