Acid Spill Closes Neighborhood Near RockTenn

A puncture in a container of an organic acid led to a deployment of emergency personnel and the closure of the neighborhood near the former Smurfit-Stone building Wednesday afternoon. (To read about the takeover of Smurfit-Stone by its former rival, RockTenn, click here).

Fire Marshal Ray Occhialini said there were about 25 emergency workers at the scene, including three Department of Environmental Protection hazardous materials workers, police, and firefighters and emergency personnel from all four Montville departments.

Jeff Chandler, emergency response supervisor with the DEP, said Wednesday that a tote on a box truck was probably punctured during transit.

The hole was near the top of the container, Chandler said, and so the acid spilled mostly during the sloshing that comes from turning around and parking.

The driver of the truck, who did not wish to be photographed or identified, said he smelled no odor during the trip, and had seen no evidence of any leak before reaching the parking area. The acid is used to treat water during the process of making cardboard, Chandler said.

Chandler said he thought that fewer than 10 gallons of acid had spilled.

"It's a low pH," he said. It would burn skin, but posed no inhalation issue.

Occhialini said the leak was reported just before 4 p.m. Ron Turner of the Montville Fire Department was the incident commander, Occhialini said. Emergency workers left around 6 p.m.

An American Ambulance truck headed onto the scene at about 4:30. Occhialini said the truck was to give assistance to emergency workers, who were fully suited in plastic, in the 90-degree heat.

DEP "made the entry," Chandler said, and the fire departments performed the decontamination, making sure that he was clean when he came out of the hot zone.

Chandler said the effort was hampered by the fact that the label on the container in the truck, and the name of the material on the shipping list did not match.

"The first step is alway identify the product."