MORGANTOWN — A representative of the West Virginia Division of Highways said samples taken by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection showed no evidence the acid spill that closed a portion of I-79 for nearly 48 hours last week “contaminated or negatively affected any of our waterways.”
The Dominion Post reached out to both the DOH and the Morgantown Utility Board to ask about scanner traffic indicating initial responders were concerned about the substance reaching a storm drain at the accident site, near the Goshen Road exit.
“At the time of the accident the Mon County Hazmat Team was on site and immediately took measures to make sure the spill was contained. There was also a third-party hazmat company there that took immediate corrective actions to contain and clean up the spill, all of which was closely monitored by the WVDEP,” DOH District 4 Manager Earl Gaskins explained.
Gaskins said the WVDEP then conducted multiple samples at both the accident site and all nearby streams and found “no evidence” of contamination.
Morgantown Utility Board Communications Director Chris Dale said MUB personnel deployed to the spill determined the chemical was not a threat to the area’s drinking water.
“Although last week’s incident that closed I-79 was outside of MUB’s regulatory boundaries, it was in our watershed, which covers 1.6 million acres across 11 West Virginia counties,” Dale said.
“We did deploy a staff person to the site. This person found that the chemical was contained and did not enter the waterway. Had the chemical contaminated the Monongahela River, we would have switched to the Flegal Dam and Reservoir, on Cobun Creek.”
Dale identified the substance as Belclene 200 or butenedioic acid, an anti-scaling chemical for extreme hard water/high alkalinity. It’s believed the overturned truck was hauling some 4,900 pounds of the chemical.
The substance ended up destroying about 500 feet of road surface, forcing the closure of the interstate’s southbound lanes from Wednesday afternoon to Friday morning while the DOH dug up and repaved the road.
In the event such a substance does threaten the local water supply, Dale said MUB has a DEP-approved Source Water Protection Plan in place to guide operational responses as well a floating monitoring station in the Monongahela River that would give the utility roughly two hours to react to any changes in water quality.
“On top of this we monitor the river at the water treatment plant and can close river intakes and immediately switch to the Flegal Dam and Reservoir if necessary,” he said.
“One of the more-unique tools we have at our disposal is the MUB Monitor. This GIS-based tool developed in collaboration with Downstream Strategies provides real-time river flow data that can track spills, assess upstream threats within the watershed, and assist us in making informed decisions.”
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