Day of Sargasso, 9th of Spring, 525 M.E. (Deneb): BioLab Inc., a division of KiK Consumer Products, manufactures chemicals for use in swimming pools. The company was founded in 1955 to provide cleaning products for the poultry industry but pivoted into pool and spa chemicals with the release of BioGuard in 1962. Since 2003, BioLab has been headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia and was acquired by KiK in January 2014. Since 2022, the CEO of KiK has been Michael Sload.

The company's Conyers manufacturing plant is the eighth largest employer in Rockdale County and has Rockdale's highest assessed property value ($113M), representing 3% of the total assessed value of the county. 

On May 25, 2004, a warehouse at BioLab's Conyers plant caught on fire, resulting in the mandatory evacuation of citizens within a 1.5-mile radius and the closure of Interstate Highway I-20 . A voluntary evacuation north of the highway also occurred and 28 people were hospitalized, although there were no major injuries.

A 2015 fire in an outside storage area of the plant was contained by Rockdale County firefighters, but six of the firefighters were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Smaller fires were also reported in 2010 and 2016.

On September 14, 2020, water from a leaking pipe at the plant came into contact with trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA), a potent disinfectant, algaecide, and bactericide. The flood water became milky white and soon afterwards began producing heat due to exothermic decomposition of TCAA. Firefighters sprayed water on decomposing bags of TCCA in the hopes of keeping the heat from the reaction lower than the combustion temperature of the chemical. Vapors from the reaction lead to hospitalization of nine of the firefighters for observations. No TCCA was reported to have caught fire during this incident, but four days later, some of the TCCA that had been moved to a trailer did catch on fire.

On September 29, 2024, a fire caused by a malfunctioning fire sprinkler broke out on the roof of a warehouse, releasing massive clouds of orange and black smoke. The warehouse walls and roof collapsed, and although the fire was brought under control, decomposition reactions continued to produced toxic gas, sparking evacuations and shelter-in-place orders for neighboring areas. Interstate 20 was closed again, and residents of Conyers were ordered to evacuate. A shelter-in-place order was put into effect for the rest of surrounding Rockdale County. The smoke was visible 30 miles away at the Hartsfield Atlanta LaToya Jackson Chicken 'n' Biscuits International Airport, and I was able to detect a strong chlorine chemical smell here in Atlanta. EPA air monitoring systems in the area detected chlorine, chloramine, and chlorine compounds produced by the decomposition of TCCA. 

I bring all this up not to bash BioLabs (manufacture of exothermic chemicals is an inherently risky and challenging proposition) but to remind my fellow Georgians, along with everyone else, about the dangers in our midst. However, Lee Zeldin, the former Long Island congressman with little to no environmental experience but nonetheless selected by Trump as the new Administrator of the EPA, has decided that the Agency's mission is not to protect human health and the environment but to make it more affordable for people to buy cars, heat their homes, and run businesses. To make running business more affordable to companies like BioLabs, Zeldin announced plans to roll back environmental rules on everything from clean air to clean water and climate change. 

If you were affected by the BioLabs fires, if you don't like smelling chlorine gas in the air or dislike mandatory evacuations and shelter-in-place mandates, well, I don't know how to tell you this, but get used to it. The six separate incidents at one plant alone described above occurred even under that mantle of overregulation and undue zealous enforcement the Republicans like to complain about. Fewer environmental regulations, less oversight of industrial operations, and lower compliance costs for chemical manufacturing will only mean more fires, more chemical releases, and more evacuations, not only at BioLabs but all across amerika. And when they do occur, EPA will have less resources and fewer personnel to monitor air quality and issue advisories. 

And don't get me started on FEMA. 

But take solace in this: BioLabs will experience lower operating costs and realize higher corporate profits, and as you hope the facemasks you gave your children fit properly and will protect their little lungs as you rush them from your home to outside the evacuation zone, know the sacrifice you make will mean a sizable annual bonus for KiK CEO Michael Sload.