Preliminary investigations concluded that the accident was likely the result of insufficient maintenance of units storing the styrene monomer, improper storage, and operation errors.
[7] The South Korean parent company, LG Chem, said in its May 2019 affidavit, a part of an application for environment clearance, that the company did not have a legitimate environmental clearance issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), after receiving an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), substantiating the produced quantity and for continuing operations.
[6] According to the EIA notification (amendment) of 2006 under the Environment Protection Act of 1986, LG Chemicals India, which is part of the petrochemical industry, falls into the category 'A' and should get clearance from the MoEFCC every time they expanded their plant or brought a change to their manufactured product after November 2006.
[6][9] However, LG Chem spokesperson Choi Sang-kyu told the Associated Press (AP) that the company had followed Indian laws and operated based on the officials' guidelines at the state and federal level.
[6] LG Polymers had never asked for a federal clearance until 2017, and as per the minutes of a meeting between the company and the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board, the latter denied the former's request for producing engineering plastics at its plant.
In 2018, the company applied for an environmental clearance for the first time, to expand its manufacturing capacity of polystyrene, a plastic used to make bottles and lids.
Mehta also pointed out that many such industries are operating without a clearance, which shows how weak the environmental laws are in India that has to its credit several of the world's most polluted cities.
[15] It is believed that a computer glitch in the factory's cooling system allowed temperatures in the storage tanks to exceed safe levels, causing the styrene to vaporize.
[26] Mekapati Goutham Reddy, minister of industries of Andhra Pradesh, said that the preliminary conclusion from the experts' inspections was that the storage facilities were not designed to keep the material for a long duration.
[18][27] The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, announced an ex gratia of ₹1 crore (US$120,000) for each family of those killed as a result of the accident.
Additionally, the central government flew in a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) specialized CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear) team from Pune to the site.
[29] On 13 May 2020, the LG Chemicals informed media that an eight-member technical team, comprising experts from its Seoul headquarters' departments of production, environment, and safety were sent to investigate the incident and to rehabilitate the victims.
[31] The malfunctioning of the tank's refrigerating unit led to an increase in temperature, causing the liquid chemical, suspected to be styrene, to evaporate.
[21][36] A petition was filed in the National Green Tribunal (NGT), India's top environmental court, demanding an investigation into the incident by a high-level committee.
[40] The report of the high-level committee headed by the NGT chair issued on 28 May 2020, accessed and reviewed by The Associated Press, found that the storage tanks were outdated and lacked temperature sensors, allowing the styrene vaporization to go undetected.
With factory workers and the overall company inexperienced in storing tanks of such dangerous chemicals, the report blamed the incident on "gross human failure" and a lack of basic safety norms.
In their notice, the NHRC was seeking a detailed report from the Andhra Pradesh Government on rescue operations, medical treatment, and rehabilitation.