A truck carrying toxic soil from the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment site overturned on April 10.
In an email to Plastics News, an Ohio EPA spokesperson said that the spill was contained and is not a threat to nearby waterways. The driver of the vehicle sustained minor injuries and was cited for operating a vehicle without reasonable control.
The accident happened just before 1 p.m. in Columbiana County, just north of the derailment site. The truck was carrying 40,000 pounds of contaminated soil from the site, where five rail cars containing PVC feedstock vinyl chloride monomer were drained and burned off on Feb. 6. Officials were concerned that one or more of those cars would have exploded if not drained.
The tractor trailer traveled off the road, struck a ditch and a utility pole and overturned onto its right side, spilling about half of its load onto the road and berm, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol data provided to the Ohio EPA.
Local fire personnel responded to the scene. The Ohio Department of Transportation has closed SR 165 at SR 617 in Mahoning County and at SR 14 in Columbiana County.
The soil involved in the accident was part of the ongoing cleanup in East Palestine, where a Norfolk Southern Corp. freight train derailed on Feb. 3. More than 30 freight cars derailed during the incident.
State and federal officials have continued monitoring air, water and soil quality. Agencies have collected more than 9,000 tons of contaminated soil and shipped more than 8 million gallons of contaminated wastewater.
Most soil taken from the site has been transported to sites in Ohio to be incinerated. The remainder is being placed in landfills in Michigan and Indiana. Liquid waste from the area is being disposed of through deep well injection at sites in Ohio, Michigan and Texas.
