Environment ministry to stage chemical accident drill in Cheonan on Wednesday

The environment ministry's Chemical Safety Institute will hold a chemical accident response drill in Cheonan on Wednesday focused on evacuating residents and recovering from the aftermath, the institute said Tuesday.

The tabletop exercise, jointly organized with the city of Cheonan, will run from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in a conference room on the third floor of Cheonan City Hall. About 50 people from nine organizations, including the Geum River Basin Environmental Office and South Chungcheong Province, will take part, and about 50 members of Cheonan's regional consultative body, made up of plant operators and resident representatives, will observe.

The institute said the drill was arranged to check that each department of the disaster and safety countermeasures headquarters and the on-site integrated support headquarters knows its duties and can operate in the field, so that casualties and environmental damage are minimized in a chemical accident.

The scenario assumes a compound disaster in which an abnormal polymerization reaction at a plant's styrene monomer residue storage tank releases hazardous chemicals and escalates into a fire and explosion, with firefighting water runoff spreading into a secondary water pollution incident.

Participants will carry out step-by-step duties from the moment of the accident through recovery, including relaying the situation, initial response, sending emergency alerts, evacuating residents, operating evacuation shelters, blocking firefighting water from entering the water system, waste disposal and support for victims.

The institute, headed by Park Bong-kyun, plans to use the results to draft a standard training scenario centered on resident evacuation and recovery and distribute it to local governments nationwide.

"For residents' safety and the recovery of daily life after a chemical accident, multiple organizations must work together from on-site response through resident evacuation and recovery," Park said. "With this drill as a starting point, we will clarify each organization's role and strengthen the chemical safety response system together with local residents and businesses."

The institute is part of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment.