By CHRIS HARRIS, Staff Writer
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.
