NIKLOR BREAKS GROUND NEW RAIL SPUR MAY ATTRACT OTHER BUSINESS.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer MOJAVE - Kern Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has Isabella Dam as its chief facility. County officials and Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley civic leaders helped break ground Friday for a $3.3 million chemical plant that east Kern County officials believe will attract new businesses to the region. More than 100 people helped Carson-based Niklor Chemical Co. Inc. celebrate the start of construction on its new home on Purdy Road just east of Highway 14, about a mile south of Mojave. ``It's a state-of-the-art facility and we have a good safety record,'' said Niklor vice president Steve Wilhelm. ``We will be good neighbors.'' The company is being forced out of Carson, where it has operated since 1969, as the result of changes in that city's zoning. The Mojave plant is expected to start operations in June 2001. The plant will include 16,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space and will have a 10,000 square feet of storage area. The plant will have a 4,030-foot rail spur. Niklor manufactures and distributes the fungicide fungicide (fŭn`jəsīd', fŭng`gə–), any substance used to destroy fungi. Some fungi are extremely damaging to crops (see diseases of plants), and others cause diseases in humans and other animals (see fungal infection). chloropicrin chloropicrin (klōr'əpĭk`rĭn), colorless oily liquid used as a poison gas. It is a powerful irritant, causing lachrymation, vomiting, bronchitis, and pulmonary edema; lung injury from chloropicrin may result in death. which is used to treat soil before planting crops. The chemical is used in strawberry and tomato farming. The company also distributes, but does not manufacture, methyl bromide methyl bromide Toxicology An insecticide and rodenticide, which is a volatile fumigant 3-fold denser than air and absorbed through skin, producing narcosis, pulmonary edema, renal tubule damage, jacksonian convulsions, CNS depression, peripheral neuropathy; , a controversial chemical that is scheduled to be phased out of production in 2005 because of concerns about ozone depletion Ozone depletion describes two distinct, but related observations: a slow, steady decline of about 4 percent per decade in the total amount of ozone in Earth's stratosphere since around 1980; and a much larger, but seasonal, decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions . The plant will have a relatively modest workforce of 20 people and a $1 million annual payroll, but Antelope Valley officials believe the plant will attract other businesses to the area. ``The rail spur they are putting in is an incentive for other businesses,'' said Dee Ewing, the honorary mayor of neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. Rosamond. Kern County officials said there are at least three other businesses looking at sites near the Niklor plant site. Officials declined to comment on who the companies are, but said they are in related industries to Niklor. The chemicals Niklor handles have raised opposition from a variety of environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund, Californians for Pesticide Reform and Pesticide Action Network. Methyl bromide is the subject of new restrictions of its use in farming, proposed in January by the administration of Gov. Gray Davis. Hearings around the state have brought out crowds of environmentalists and farmers. Methyl bromide can cause central nervous system and respiratory system respiratory system: see respiration. respiratory system Organ system involved in respiration. In humans, the diaphragm and, to a lesser extent, the muscles between the ribs generate a pumping action, moving air in and out of the lungs through a failure and chloropicrin can cause upper respiratory problems and skin and eye irritation. Both chemicals can cause death. The Montreal Protocol Montreal Protocol, officially the Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer, treaty signed on Sept. 16, 1987, at Montreal by 25 nations; 168 nations are now parties to the accord. , an international treaty to protect Earth from ozone depletion, has targeted to end methyl bromide production by 2005 in industrial nations and by 2015 in developing countries. The Netherlands phased out use of the chemical in 1992 because of concerns about groundwater contamination and Denmark and Sweden are in the process of doing the same. Wilhelm said the company will look to distribute other chemicals as methyl bromide is phased out. |
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