The smell of a swimming pool and a white tinge filled the air in Milledgeville on Tuesday, Oct. 1 as a cloud of chlorine drifted south from Conyers, Ga. where a chemical plant caught fire on Sunday morning.
The incident occurred at BioLab, a facility that manufactures chemicals to treat pools. The accident began as a fire, but the smoke that continues to fill the east Atlanta sky into Tuesday is no longer the product of fire, but that of a chemical reaction.
The white pillar of smoke was both visible and smellable from I-20. The interstate was shut down Sunday afternoon but reopened by the following morning. Additionally, a shelter-in-place order was issued to local residents in Rockdale County, but it too has since been lifted.
On Monday afternoon, the smoke could be seen from the interstate as a plume in the distance. However, just 24 hours later, the interstate itself was shrouded with white smog in the miles that stretch nearest to the plant.
As the smell hit Milledgeville, students took to YikYak, a popular anonymous college campus-centered message board app, to voice their thoughts.
“Is it just in my head or does anyone else got a headache from the musty air…” one post said.
“Georgia just can’t seem to catch a break,” said another user, in reference to the recent statewide destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, which prompted the university to cancel classes last Thursday and Friday.
The Environmental Protection Agency in Georgia monitored the BioLab situation in partnership with the plant itself and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division and Rockdale County.
“The odor threshold for chlorine is very low, meaning that people can smell it at very low concentrations that do not cause harm,” the EPA in Georgia said in a statement.
They also continue to post the results of their monitoring in 12-hour increments on their website.
At 11:39 a.m., student email inboxes were hit with a GC Alert addressing the fumes.
“…today because of wind shifts and the low cloud cover over Milledgeville and Baldwin County, the smell of chlorine has been detected in our area,” the statement, signed by GCSU President Cathy Cox, said. “Nevertheless, we have no information from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) or the Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency, both of which we are in contact with, that concentrations of the leaking gases are of such a level in our area as to be hazardous.”
The alert, also posted to GCSU’s social media accounts and Cox’s “gcsupresident” Instagram, goes on to suggest that students who might suffer from respiratory issues should consider staying inside as much as they are able. Additionally, the forecasted cloud dissipation for the afternoon led the university to expect the chlorine aroma to dissipate from Milledgeville soon. By 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the odor was no longer detectable on campus.
In a Tuesday press release from Rockdale County, officials advise that Georgians shelter in place if the cloud and smell of chlorine drifts over their location.
