NC previously cited company in deadly tanker blast for hazardous waste violations
The company that owns the tanker that exploded this week and killed its driver in Mooresville has previously been cited for inappropriately storing hazardous chemicals, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality records show.
In 2025, state inspectors fined Brenntag, a global chemical wholesaler with headquarters in Germany, nearly $67,000 after its Charlotte-area plant broke federal regulations designed to protect people from hazardous waste.
The state’s environmental quality department enforces federal regulations on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA records show Brenntag has been “significantly out of compliance” with hazardous waste rules at that site since late 2024.
“Those regulations are all about safety. Safety for workers at a company, safety for people coming in ... like maybe fireman, emergency personnel or people just making deliveries,” said Mary Maclean Asbill, director of the North Carolina Offices for the Southern Environmental Law Center. “And it’s for the communities and the air and water around the facilities that use hazardous materials.”
Brenntag was cited for failing to label containers holding hazardous waste and storing two incompatible compounds next to each other without having anything to separate them. The two compounds, sodium hypochlorite and hydrochloric acid, can create deadly chlorine gas if mixed.
Nearly 3,800 people live within a mile radius of the site southwest of the city near Carowinds Boulevard where the violations occurred, according to the EPA.
Brenntag also had an inadequate evacuation plan, lacking contact information for its emergency coordinator, a list of the estimated amount of hazardous waste on site and maps that point to the location of such hazardous waste and emergency equipment, according to the state.
Brenntag also was missing weekly inspection records.
North Carolina inspectors also have found chemical storage problems on three separate visits to the company’s East Durham plant, according to Inside Climate News.
“Some dramatic action should result from something as horrible as an explosion.”
Mary Maclean Asbill
Southern Environmental Law CenterRaquel Sheppard, Brenntag’s communication director, did not respond to requests for comment about its sanctions.
Asbill said the tanker explosion should prompt the company to “get their house in order.”
“It should also prompt the environmental agency to really bring down the hammer on the company, whether it’s a fine or causing them to shut down for a while until they get it all figured out,” Asbill said. “Some dramatic action should result from something as horrible as an explosion.”
Tanker explosion in NC leaves one dead, one injured
The Brenntag tanker that blew up on Tuesday was hauling 1,100 gallons of sodium hydroxide, a cleaning chemical. Federal officials said it had been leaking about 20 minutes before the explosion at beverage distribution company Carolina Beverage Group.
The driver was killed and another person near the blast suffered chemical burns, Mooresville Fire-Rescue Chief Shane LaCount said at a news conference Tuesday.
Authorities haven’t identified the person who died. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
OSHA complaints against Brenntag
Brenntag’s Charlotte-area location has had no OSHA complaints or violations in the last 10 year, but other Brenntag properties collectively have had 11 complaints and 12 violations.
In West Virginia, the company was fined nearly $19,000 by OSHA last year when management didn’t get an employee medically evaluated before they put on a respirator after a chlorine gas leak, and for some employees unloading gas from 150 ton pound tanks without having respirators.
In Pennsylvania in 2024, OSHA cited the company for an exhaust ventilation system used to capture flammable vapors not being safe, among other problems, costing $18,000 in fines.
This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 4:39 PM.
