Palco incident

The Palco incident

Deformed frog, as seen in the newspaper Isla Neua
Native name	Morto de las ranas
Jackian name	Death of the frogs
Date	June 4, 1977 (1977-06-04)
Location	Palco, Menora de Sur
Also known as	Palco chemical leak
Cause	Chemical fire/spill
Non-fatal injuries	Three workers burned 78 cases of severe ataxia
Arrests	Henriko Morico Charles Venrik Anav Rodriguez Ava Sena Danval Karl Henryfilo
Publication bans	Rakeo (out of effect)

The Palco Incident, otherwise known as Death of the frogs was an event over the course of 1977 and 1978 where a unreported unknown chemical spill poisoned both residents and frogs of Palco, Rakeo.

Background

The city of Palco has a thriving chemical production industry, with multiple chemical plants operating there since the 1960s. These plants employ the majority of the city's 34 thousand residents, and are known as vital for the agriculture of Jinosia Menora, as well as for Rakeo's plastic production. However, environmental activists have decried the impact that the country's relatively lax regulations have, and there has been questioning of the government's reported numbers for pesticide production.

July was a high-volume month for pesticide production, meaning workers' shifts were lengthened. Additionally, safety measures commonly mandated elsewhere were failed to be enforced in Palco's railyard.

Incident

On 4 June, a worker at the Rikardo-Civerts Polysynthetics chemical plant was filling a 2000 liter tank bound for Jinosia with a pesticide-solvent mixture. After filling each container, a second worker was due to inspect the seals on the tanks to check for leaks or defects. The container passed through the inspection process without any recorded defects, and was subsequently moved into a railyard.

When it was being loaded, the hoist came loose, the container fell, and small quantity of the pesticide was spilled. Both workers quickly left the area, and notified their supervisor regarding the incident. The workers and their supervisor returned to the site of the spill and the now stuck pesticide container.

As they worked to safely dislodge the the container from the ground, they failed to notice a secondary leakage on the container, which was creating a pool of flammable liquid. A spark, believed to be from the metal container scraping against the ground, ignited the pool.

The two workers and their supervisor were all injured by the fire, but at least one made it to a alarm based on the site, raising an alert for the railyard's onsite fire containment group (put into place after a similar incident in 1969), who quickly moved to put out the now burning container. As they sprayed the container with water, up to 130 kilograms of toxic pesticide was dispersed in the local watershed.

It was not required by law for the incident to be recorded or reported. As the workers injuries did not qualify as sufficiently dangerous, the event was written off, the now broken container was set aside, and the night shift was tasked with cleaning up the area.

Aftermath

However, in the next couple months, a number of odd cases of ataxia began appearing at Palco's hospital, all orginating from the same watershed as the orginal RCP-linked railyard. As government scruntiny intensified, a team of investigators were sent to the railyard. After concluding in their report that the company was likely responsible for the mystery illness, the Stratocratic Authority of Menora de Sur decided not to release the report, a decision believed by one of the investigators to have been motitavated by a bribe.

Over the next year, more cases of Palco-Related Ataxia (PRA) were noted by the hospital, and local papers began to report the illness. At this point, a publicition ban was put in place by the regional government.

But as the chemical spread through the waterways, cases of deformed frogs and pools filled with dead frogs began to be reported, which was quickly picked up as a story by the national media, even getting into the international news.

With mounting national pressure to get the bottom of the issue, a committee was established in Olino to oversee an investigation into the frog deformities and deaths. As they worked, they noticed that both the frog deaths had been precipitated by a wave of cases of PRA. When a map of the area's waterways was compared with hospital records, a clear pattern emerged- All cases of PRA drew their water from wells in the immediate vicinity of the RCP railyard, and all in the same watershed.

As the original coverup was discovered, a number of persons were publicly outed for their role in the incident.

Arrests

Three individuals employed by the RCP were arrested

• Henriko Morico, CEO
• Charles Venrik, vice president
• Anav Lopez Ava, supervisor

Two government officials were arrested

• Sena Danval, Regional Minister of Industry
• Karl Henryfilo, Menora Minister

Conspiracies and theories 

Some members of the Rakeoian diaspora, such as Fanea Kristianofilo allege that the incident was likely the result of an ongoing chemical weapons program, or as a deliberate experiment on the population sanctioned by the Stratocratic Authority. Some academics agree that a chemical weapon leak could have occurred, but that without on-the-ground testing, determining the legitimacy of the allegations or the agent involved would remain impossible.