Police Director William Meytrott: The leak was detected by the driver of a car behind the truck. That individual who noticed fumes flagged down the driver of a Hopewell Valley Emergency Services ambulance.
By John Tredrea
A nonhazardous liquid leaking from a tractor-trailer and evaporating into a gaseous plume as soon as it hit the pavement caused officials to close a section of Route 31 in and around Pennington Borough early Wednesday afternoon.
Several streets in the borough, including most of westbound Delaware Avenue and all of Broemel Place, also were closed for hours. Detoured cars and trucks moved slowly in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Main Street that extended for hundreds of yards in the heat and humidity.
No motor vehicle accident or injuries resulted from the leaking-truck incident. At 3 p.m., Pennington Borough Administrator Karen Waldron said the spill from the truck had "been contained" by the HazMat (Hazardous Materials) unit dispatched to the scene from Trenton.
Hopewell Township police Capt. George Meyer said a sign on the truck said it contained corrosives. Pennington Police Director William Meytrott said the truck belonged to Environmental Transport Group, Inc., of Flanders. The leak, he said, was detected by the driver of a car behind the truck. That individual who noticed fumes flagged down the driver of a Hopewell Valley Emergency Services ambulance.
Director Meytrott said the liquid was a combination of about 90 percent water and isopropyl alcohol. The truck, he said, was loaded with barrels of chemicals from different sites. They were on their way to being dumped, he noted, adding that some of the barrels contained hazardous chemicals. The leak fortunately came from a drum that did not contain a hazardous liquid.
Mr. Meytrott said the reason area streets and business were closed for varying periods of time was because it was not known at first what kind of liquid was leaking.
Route 31 was closed between the Pennington Circle and North Main Street, a distance of about a mile, from early afternoon until 4:40 p.m. But Broemel Place remained closed until 8:30 p.m. The leaking truck had been pulled off Route 31 onto Broemel Place, a short street that runs east into the borough. Both ends of Broemel Place were blocked to vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
As a result of the Broemel Place closing, a 7:30 p.m. meeting of Valley Democrats, who were planning to discuss the creation of a community organization, were unable to hold their session at Pennington Firehouse, as planned.
The post office on Broemel Place was closed, as was the Straube Center, an office complex just north of Broemel Place. Also closed for a time were businesses in the complex off Route 31 just south of Broemel that includes Regent Floor Covering and Pennington Pizza.
When the HVN first arrived on the scene Wednesday near the eastern roadblock Mark Reading, a longtime professional paramedic and volunteer member of the Pennington First Aid Squad, said there were several containers, each with liquid inside, in the trailer. "The liquid leading out of the trailer, whatever it is, is evaporating as soon as it hits the ground," he said. A brisk easterly wind was blowing at the time.
The HazMat team was working near the truck when the HVN was ordered off Broemel Place. The HazMat unit’s task is to clean up the site, determine what the spilled material is, and keep the area quarantined until it has been deemed safe for use by vehicles and pedestrians.
Responding to the scene along with the Trenton-based HazMat unit and the Trenton Fire Department were the fire departments from Pennington, Hopewell, Lawrence and Upper Makefield, Pa.