The latest in a long history of chemical plant leaks, fires and explosions has claimed two lives and injured at least 19 people at a metal refining company located outside of Charleston.
Workers at the Ames Goldsmith Catalyst Refiners were dismantling the plant near Institute when two chemicals, nitric acid and a chemical authorities called M2000A, mixed, creating what officials called a violent reaction of hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas.
First responders rushed to the scene, finding employees dragging their coworkers out of the plant, which Kanawha County Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said is about the size of a small warehouse.
Sigman said among the injured were seven first responders.
Maya Nye, federal policy director for Coming Clean, a nonprofit environmental health group, has lived near the Institute Plant for decades and has witnessed many chemical spills and gas leaks from the facility.
“This is probably one of the largest incidents we’ve had in a long time,” she said. “We haven’t seen this many people being taken by ambulance to the hospital since 2008.”
Ames Goldsmith Catalyst Refiners makes silver-based products used in the medical, electronic and automotive industries. The plant is adjacent to the site of the former Union Carbide plant, which manufactured petrochemicals for products like batteries and antifreeze.
The plant was opened in 1999, and employees were notified it would be closing in June.
Kanawha County Emergency Management told residents living in a one-mile perimeter of the facility to stay in their homes for hours following the incident. Sigman said no one outside the plant has reported any injuries from the gas, and air monitoring is underway.
Ames Goldsmith Catalyst Refiners is owned by Ames Goldsmith, a metal manufacturing company with factories across the world.
Since 2018, the parent company has had at least five other workplace safety citations at facilities in the U.S., including in West Virginia.
In 2018, OSHA issued a citation to the Institute plant for allegedly not routinely evaluating employees who operated industrial vehicles, but assessed no fine. And in 2013, a tank leak in the plant spilled 50 gallons of nitric acid, injuring two people.
In 2022, federal safety inspectors at OSHA cited a plant in New York because pipelines were not labeled or identified to show the correct flow of dangerous gases.
The violation put 70 people at risk of exposure to nitric acid and other toxic gases. Inspectors fined the company more than $10,000 for the serious safety violation. OSHA settled the case for $6700.
A spokesperson for OSHA said the agency has opened an investigation into the incident at Institute. In a statement about the incident, Ames Goldsmith said the company was “working closely with local, state and federal agencies to determine the cause of the incident, which appears to have resulted in the creation of chemical fumes within a building at the facility.”
The Kanawha Valley has a long history of chemical plant explosions, fires and spills, exposing workers and residents to toxic chemicals. Those incidents have been linked to unsafe practices at local plants and lax enforcement of rules meant to protect workers and the plants’ neighbors.
Among those were a 2008 explosion at a pesticide plant at the same site that killed two and potentially endangered many nearby residents in Institute. Less than two years later, a toxic release killed a worker at the DuPont Plant in Belle.
Then there was the 2014 Freedom Industries spill that contaminated water for hundreds of thousands of residents in the valley.
Throughout West Virginia’s history, elected officials have resisted regulation of heavy industries, including coal, chemical manufacturing, natural gas and steel.
Worker safety and environmental protection often suffer as a result. These industries are among the largest sources of campaign contributions for those running for political office.
But in 2014, six years after two workers were killed in an explosion at the Bayer Crop Sciences plant, the chemical board called for government officials to create a safety program to police the Kanawha Valley’s chemical industry.
Industry groups, however, opposed the proposal, saying it would create “additional economic burdens” on plants, and it went nowhere.
Nye said the chemicals involved in the gas leak in Institute should have been more heavily regulated.
She said there was an effort two years ago by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to implement rules to protect communities from dangerous chemical accidents. But the Trump administration is proposing to weaken them.
“These are things people in this community have been talking about for 30 years,” she said. “Yet, this administration is rolling back these efforts, and these incidents keep happening.”
UPDATE, 8:50 pm, April 22, 2026: A spokesperson for the Ames Goldsmith company responded to inquiries after this story was initially published. The response has been added to the story above.
