Trending
LORDSTOWN -- A federal regulatory agency is investigating after Ultium Cells reported a chemical spill over the weekend at the company's Lordstown electric-vehicle battery-cell manufacturing plant.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) opened the inquiry after getting a report on the incident Monday, according to agency spokesman Scott Allen on Tuesday.
According to Ultium Cells spokeswoman Katie Burdette, after the discovery of the cathode mixing slurry leak at the state Route 45 factory, "immediate steps were taken to isolate the cause and contain the leak."
"The immediate surrounding area was cleared, and the mixing area operations were temporarily halted while we assessed and addressed the situation," Burdette said Tuesday in an email.
No operators were present in the area; no employee was exposed or injured; and a third party was brought in to help with the cleanup, she said.
"Our investigation into the cause of the spill is ongoing, and area operations were paused until cleanup was complete, and the entire surrounding area has been inspected for damage and deemed safe," Burdette said.
The spill, she said, shows Ultium Cells has "the right safety and reporting procedures in place and our teams are sufficiently trained to follow them."
For the investigation, OSHA will collect details regarding what happened, on what corrective actions Ultium Cells took and whether employees are still at risk, Allen said.
Based on that, the agency will determine whether employees were exposed to a significant hazard, were the actions taken by Ultium appropriate and whether OSHA has enough information to establish a potential violation of agency standards to warrant citations.
"If the company's corrective actions were appropriate, we will close out the investigation," Allen said.
He said Tuesday the agency is still investigating the extent of the exposure.
According to OSHA, the slurry contained N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP), a solvent used in a variety of products and purposes, from semiconductor manufacturing to silk screen printing to construction adhesives and solvents, according to an advisory OSHA provided from the California Department of Public Health.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined NMP "presents an unreasonable risk of injury to human health under its conditions of use," its website states.
The agency has assessed the impact on workers, occupational non-users, consumers and bystanders, and identified fetal loss as the primary health risk for short-term exposure and reduced fertility from long-term exposure to the chemical, according to the site.
OSHA has six open inspections at the Lordstown plant and five closed inspections. Ultium Cells has already paid $31,708 in penalties, according to Allen. The company is a joint venture between General Motors South Korea's LG Energy Solutions to mass produce EV battery cells. More than 1,400 people are employed at the Lordstown factory, the first of three operating under Ultium Cells.
rselak@tribtoday.com