| RENVILLE - Structural engineers have been
called to investigate why structural steel failed underneath
one of four evaporators, causing all four evaporators to sag
about 4 feet Tuesday morning at the Southern Minnesota Beet
Sugar Cooperative factory near Renville.
No injuries were reported, and no emergency services were
called to the scene.
John Richmond, co-op president and chief executive officer,
said it appears the incident occurred between 5 and 6 a.m.
Tuesday when the structural steel under one of the evaporators
failed.
"We certainly don't know what caused it to fail yet,''
Richmond said. "We've got some structural engineers
coming.''
The evaporators were full of water at the time the steel
failed, he said. The evaporators are designed to be full of
water and are normally used to concentrate the thin juice from
the sugar beets by boiling.
Each weighs about 100 tons and holds about 300 tons of
water. They are probably 30 to 40 feet tall and 12 to 14 feet
wide. The evaporators were installed in the factory last year
at a cost of $6 million and resemble cylinders like juice cans
placed on end.
The failure of the steel caused one of the evaporators to
pull the other three down like dominoes, Richmond said, but
all were pretty much held up by the pipes above and below the
evaporators.
Richmond said the farthest they dropped was about 4 feet,
"so it's not like they came crashing down four to five
floors. They sagged about 4 feet, coming to rest on the bottom
floor on the pipes that are under the vessels.''
A number of the pipes were strained and loosened, but none
broke, he said. Workers closed off the water supply, opened
the valves and drained the water onto the floor, which drained
into the plant's wastewater treatment system.
Richmond was glad no one was hurt, and he was happy the
vessels weren't full of beet juice, which "could have
been a terrible mess.''
The factory was being closed for its normal three-week
maintenance period before slicing of beets begins this fall,
and a minimal staff was on duty, according to Richmond. Most
workers will be brought in during the day.
He said heavy-duty equipment will be called in to raise the
evaporators so new support steel can be installed.
Richmond said growers have been calling all day and asking
whether the incident will affect sugar beet harvest.
"We're trying to ascertain the extent of damage and
how it would be remedied, and as soon as we have an idea of
whether it might affect harvest, we'll certainly let people
know,'' said Richmond. |