Chemical spill from parker trailer contained

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February 9, 2009

By CHRIS HARRIS, Staff Writer The Commonwealth Journal Mon Feb 09, 2009, 07:18 PM EST

Somerset — A potentially hazardous situation was averted early Monday morning at an eastern Pulaski service station after a chemical spill was discovered originating from a parked tanker.

According to Doug Baker, Somerset-Pulaski County Special Response Team chief, a corrosive substance escaped from a containment unit that had been dropped off at East Way Market on east Ky. 80. It was left by a tractor trailer owner by the Bulk Express company out of Ohio.

An East Way Market employee reported the leak at around 12:30 a.m., sending the Special Response Team into action. The State Fire Marshal’s office and Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement were also called in to assist at the scene.

Responders found that the substance — a refining oil frequently used on wood surfaces like telephone poles to prevent rotting — was leaking from the rear of the barrel onto the soil behind the expansive parking lot the station uses for large trucks. Baker said that “somewhere between” 50 to 100 gallons of the refining oil was spilled.

The leak was stopped within 45 minutes of the Special Response Team’s arrival. However, the driver of the truck that had carried the tanker was nowhere around, nor was the tractor.

It’s not uncommon for tankers like the one at East Way to be dropped off by truck drivers, so long as they’re plainly visible, but those containing corrosive substances must be completely cleaned and purged of the chemicals before they’re left behind. In this case, said Baker, that matter of protocol had not been performed by the driver, whose name was not available as of presstime.

“If there’s hazardous material in the trailer, whether it’s empty or full, it has to be purged,” said Baker. “If it hasn’t been, you’re not supposed to (leave it in a public lot).”

Local officials got in contact with the Bulk Express company, which managed to track down the driver of the tractor trailer via cell phone, and the case was turned over to Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement. It took approximately three hours to locate the driver, said Baker.

Special Response Team members were on the scene until 6:15 a.m., said Baker. No one was at the scene at the time of the leak, and no one was endangered. There was also no water contamination and no fumes. Nevertheless, the substance that leaked was hazardous to humans and was fortunately caught before it could do any damage, suggested Baker.

“The East Way employees did a fine job checking the trucks to catch that something was leaking,” said Baker.

A clean-up crew was out at East Way Market Monday afternoon to dig up the ground contaminated by the refining oil and replace it with clean soil.

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Big Bang Theory
Pulaski County is not at war. The booming you may hear at dusk is mock cannon fire to scare away birds.
Stuart Spillman, environmental director for the Lake Cumberland Health Department, said at least three cannons are on loan from the department to residents who want to scare away swarms of starlings and blackbirds settling in to roost.
He said a cannon is being used by a resident on Laura Lane off Ky. 39; another is in the Oak Hill Road area and a third is on Ashurst Street in the eastern part of Somerset.
Spillman said a timer on each cannon allows it to “fire” at whatever frequency is desired. The cannons must be used as the birds circle before going to roost. “After they settle in, nothing will chase them out,” Spillman said.
The Health Department doesn’t operate the cannons unless there is a specific complaint in an area where there are lots of birds, Spillman noted. He said so far this year the birds are not as bad as in the past.

February 2, 2012
Boil water advisory is lifted countywide
The water controversy that Pulaski County has been boiling over — so to speak — for the last week is finally over.
At 10 minutes after noon Wednesday, the “boil water” advisory for the Western Pulaski Water District was lifted — almost a full week after the problems began around 1 p.m. last Thursday.
Prior to that, the Somerset Water Service — along with the other water providers in its system, including Science Hill Water, Southeastern Water, and Eubank Water — lifted their advisories, with Somerset on Saturday afternoon and the last, Southeastern, by Monday morning. Western Pulaski was the last in the system to complete sample testing for potential contaminants, due to not being able to access its Pikeville-based testing lab until Monday.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler thanked the public for its patience and understanding during the duration of the boil water advisory — put in place to keep citizens from drinking water that could have been contaminated after an accident last Thursday at the water plant site — and also thanked all the city employees for their hard work during this time.
“The boil water advisory went about as well as would be expected,” said Girdler.

February 2, 2012
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