Ammonia leak irks Athlone Park residents

A leak from the Anchor’s Yeast plant at about 9pm washed over the suburb, leaving many residents red in the face and gasping for breath on 31 December.

“It was terrible,” said Ilanda Road resident, Murray McGoldrick. “We were outside having a braai and it started burning our eyes. It lasted more than an hour. How come the siren didn’t go off? With any leak, the siren should go off, but it didn’t,” said Murray.

Operations director, Dinesh Thathiah confirmed a leak occurred while offloading a tanker of ammonia at the Anchor Yeast plant that operates within the Umbogintwini Industrial Complex.

“Plant operational personnel were able to stop the activity shortly after the complaint was received. The ammonia smell initially prevailed in the vicinity of the offloading area and then dissipated,” he said. “The EMPRO siren was not activated because local operations thought the matter was under control. This aspect is under investigation.

The incident has been investigated and operational controls have been reinstated. A release valve seat was found to be damaged and was replaced, in addition to servicing the entire system. Operational staff have also been re-trained on this activity. Subsequent to these changes, the operation has remained incident-free. Due to the plant’s policy of continuous improvement, other controls will be investigated. Anchor Yeast apologises for the incident and any inconvenience caused to the community.”