Sen. Tonya Anderson (l) helped her community through the devastation and aftermath of the BioLab chemical explosion.
First published in the Rockdale Citizen
Op-ed by Georgia State Sen. Tonya Anderson, District 43, USAF Reserve
I’m proud of my community. Neighbors help neighbors. People work together for shared goals and a vision for a better tomorrow. I remember sharing that commitment, and dedication, as well as feeling I was a member of a bigger family, during my Air Force service. We understand that we all are lifted up together, not separately as we work towards our future. When a catastrophe hits, it affects every one of us and we pull together to find solutions.
In the early morning hours of September 29, 2024, my phone lit up. My heart sank, I felt an emptiness inside my soul. I knew some emergency must be underway. Outside, an eerie morning glow coated the area in an apparent fog. Although we didn’t know it at that time, the air was filled with chemical fallout from an explosion at the local BioLab plant in Conyers.
The following day some residents loaded up their cars with their families, wanting to get away from the towering plume of dense, acrid air that was thick with the sharp stench of chlorine. Later, independent testing indicated the presence of harmful chemicals, including metals like lead and nickel, in debris and soil samples across the area.
A fire on the roof caused a sprinkler system malfunction inside the facility drenching water-reactive chlorine compounds, which triggered a violent chemical reaction. The toxic smoke released chlorine and hydrochloric acid into the air, blanketing Conyers. According to reports, air quality monitors detected chlorine levels 22 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s emergency action threshold. In the days to come, people became extremely ill.
Many of these potentially deadly chemicals are controlled by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). But, now, TSCA is under threat because it needs Congressional reauthorization. During that process, some may add measures that would weaken it. We cannot allow that to happen.
Our community is predominantly Black and working-class. We have a zip-code that has witnessed companies not adhering to safety precautions before. Wanting to right injustices was one guiding reason why I ran for office in the first place. People need not only to be heard in halls of power, they need their issues to be acted upon.
This wasn’t the first time BioLab, a manufacturer of pool and spa chemicals, had incidents including three major chemical explosions that led to evacuations and public health risks. This time the disastrous effects stretched beyond Rockdale County lines invading communities in the Atlanta metro area. The BioLab chemical fire prompted the evacuation of roughly 17,000 Rockdale County residents and shelter-in-place directives affecting over 90,000 people due to airborne chlorine and chemical irritants spreading across the greater Atlanta area. In the days to come, more and more people reported respiratory problems and severe skin rashes caused by chemical exposure.
Numbers and statistics cannot express the depths of trauma too many suffered. My community’s trust was broken. Safe zones vanished overnight. Many no longer felt protected in their own homes as the contaminated air filtered inside. The insidious nature of the unseen chemicals in the air that residents breathed, along with how they are still dealing with the contamination left behind in the soil and water, make people feel violated.
As a veteran, a minister and a state senator, my moral responsibility is to fight for the people in my community and all those I represent in every way possible. I contacted U.S. Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, as well as Congressman Henry C. Johnson, Jr. and together we stood with community leaders and concerned citizens demanding action. Together we called for corporate accountability and compensation. A BioLab compensation program was set up where more than 29,000 people submitted claims, BioLab is not producing these chemicals at this plant. They closed their doors after many voices from the community demanded that their health and safety is made a priority.
We will rebuild knowing we’ve done what we could to ensure an accident like this never happens to our community ever again.
Still, community trust has a long way to be restored. We must not let it be eroded further by allowing restrictions that keep polluters accountable, like BioLab, to be rolled back.
My community, my country deserves the protection our armed services provide. We swore an oath to the Constitution to serve and protect our country from enemies foreign and domestic. Corporations that do not abide by the laws governing our country must be held accountable, and only can be if we, as a nation, uphold laws like TSCA. Despite the trauma, our community remains strong and resilient. We need laws like TSCA not to be weakened and remain strong to protect all Americans.
