A semi-truck carrying the chemical butyl acrylates flipped over near the town of Williamsburg, Kentucky, on the morning of Feb. 3, 2020. The chemical spill resulted in four houses being evacuated and the city’s raw water intake being closed for a little over a day, according to ABC 36 WVTQ.
A Lost Driver
The accident occurred a little before 6 AM when the truck’s driver attempted to turn his vehicle around on a small bridge outside of the city. The tanker attached to his truck flipped over the bridge, spilling about 1,600 gallons of butyl acrylates onto the train tracks below.
The driver had spent the night at a truck stop in Williamsburg and was attempting to drive to Richmond, Kentucky. He said that he had found himself in a tough situation after his GPS gave him bad directions, forcing him to turn around.
Fortunately, the truck’s driver was unharmed by the accident and was able to remove himself from the vehicle’s cockpit before an emergency team arrived.
A Long Cleanup
Following the spill, four homes that were near the spill site were evacuated as a precaution and the road that the accident had occurred on was closed. A team that included firefighters from the nearby towns of Pleasant View, Emlyn and South Whitley and personnel from Kentucky Emergency Management began to perform clean-up. The majority of the spill stayed on the railroad line, forcing workers to remove 39 feet of track, ties and gravel. In all, the cleanup took until past 1 AM the next day and also involved unloading the tanker, getting it upright and hauling it away. Part of the lengthy cleanup involved waiting for another tanker to come from Indianapolis, a decision that local officials noted came from the trucking company.
Further examination during the cleanup also revealed that some of the chemicals had runoff into the nearby Clear Fork River. Officials shut off Williamsburg’s raw water supply, giving the Kentucky Division of Water time to perform testing and ensure safety. The water supply was reopened on Feb 5, 2020.
According to Whitley County Emergency Management Director Danny Moses, no other areas would have problems with their water because the chemicals were quickly diluted.
“It [the Clear Fork River] will eventually reach Lake Cumberland, but it will dissipate even further before it gets anywhere close,” said Moses, speaking with the area’s local newspaper, The News Journal.
Butyl acrylates is a chemical that is typically used in manufacturing for paints, sealants and coating. It is highly flammable and has a very strong odor that one nearby resident described as “unreal.”
