Emergency shelter order lifted following ‘chemical incident’ at Dow plant in Texas

This story has been updated.

Emergency officials have lifted a shelter-in-place order that was issued Wednesday morning for parts of a Houston-area city after a “chemical incident” at a plant in the area.

The order had been issued for parts of La Porte, a city about 25 miles southeast of Houston. La Porte Emergency Management said earlier that residents in the affected area should stay indoors, turn their air conditioning off and close windows.

Dow Chemical, which operates a plant in the area, said in a public alert message that a “release event” from a tank truck had occurred, but did not specify what chemicals were involved. The company said that it had not detected any chemicals in any monitoring so far.

Harris County Pollution Control said in a statement that a tank wagon over-pressurized, which caused a release of the chemical hydroxyethyl acrylate. The chemical can cause irritation of the nose and throat, the statement said.

An evacuation order remained in place for people within a half-mile of the plant, which is located in an industrial area.

This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 10:31 AM.