The failing Orange County tank filled with a toxic chemical and at risk of exploding has reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the maximum reading on the gauge, officials said Sunday.
“The tank was at 100 degrees, or at least that’s as high as the thermometer would go,” state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Orange) told reporters Sunday evening.
On Saturday morning, the temperature was at 90 degrees, and on Friday, it was at 77, officials said earlier. The goal has been to reduce the temperature inside the tank to 50 degrees.
It’s unclear what temperature would trigger an explosion; officials haven’t made that information public. The interim Orange County Fire Authority chief, TJ McGovern, earlier on Sunday said firefighters overnight detected “a potential crack in the tank, which could potentially be relieving some of the pressure in there.”
“With this new information, it could change our trajectory and our strategy to this event,” McGovern said Sunday morning. “We’re not there yet, but this was a step in a right direction.”
Lee Zeldin, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, expressed optimism Sunday morning.
“I’m being told this morning that the most likely scenario is one of a low volume release, where the local authorities are going to be able to monitor, neutralize and contain the threat,” he said during a Sunday morning appearance on CNN‘s “State of the Union.”