Tanker Truck Leaking Chemical on I-95 in Greenwich

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is mopping up a ferric chloride leak from a tanker truck at the weigh station on I-95 in Greenwich on Thursday morning.

A DEEP source told WTIC “ it will take a long time for crews to clean up the leak. The tanker is holding 3,400 gallons of the chemical.” WTIC first reported the leak at 4:22 a.m. Thursday.

Because the tanker is in the weigh station area between northbound Exits 2 and 3, there shouldn’t be any impact on traffic.

According to Greenwich Fire Department radio dispatches at 5:30 a.m., DEEP personnel were still at the scene and “the leak remains active in the containment area.” The DEEP is awaiting “other resources to continue” the transfer pump out operations and when those resources arrive, Greenwich fire personnel would return to the scene, according to the radio transmissions.

Ferric chloride, the formal name for iron chloride, is an industrial scale chemical compound that when dissolved in water, undergoes hydrolysis and gives off heat in an exothermic reaction, according to wikipedia. The resulting brown, acidic, and corrosive solution is used as a flocculant in sewage treatment and drinking water production, and as an etchant for copper-based metals in printed circuit boards.

Photo 1 credit: WTIC.

Photo 2 credit: ConnDOT traffic cam.

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