Windgap Spill

[ryanh]

"Hydrofluoric acid in low doses can irritate the eyes, nose, and respiratory tract. Inhalation can be fatal."

This may be the understatement of the century. Coming into contact with just a drop of HF can be fatal as it seeks and destroys calcium.

What is this area near?

 

[pete41]

15 miles north of philly
I was going to take a cheap shot at the name but-
I worked in a lab for a few years and know this is the acid even the best techs were leery of.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

It's used to etch glass and is "bad stuff". Kin to HCl , which is used to chlorinate pools, etc.halogen family, sorry, it must be the chemist in me.LOL

 

[littlejuniata]

Wonder if we really know how much crap like this is on our highways??

 

[Lonewolve]

First of all get the facts straight wind gap pa is over an hour and one half from philly ,literally .And since i know what happened let me fill in the blanks for you.A deer ran across rt 33 and the driver of the tractor trailer was trying to avoid hitting the deer. the tractor trailer was a haz mat tanker and most haz mat tanker trailers have triple walls. the problem with hitting a deer with these type trailers is that when a deer is hit usually the the carcass flips up and the bones or hooves or the antlers puncture the skin severely.
The trailer was carrying 16 tons of pressurized material and it leaked approximately 1 to 1 1/2 gallons of material ,and alledgedly 5.000 people were evacuated . Unfortuantely this happened near one of the two headwaters of the Bushkill Creek in Northampton County.
Luckily by falling on its side the leak occured at a valve not the tank itself.And the creek was not affected.
Tight Wraps & Tight Lines
Rick Wallace

 

[tomgamber]

The only fact I see that wasn't "straight" was the distance from Philly.
About 15 miles north of Easton but most probably looked it up themselves. Thanks for the update though.

 

[pete41]

first report said Philly-sorry-lol

 

[gfen]

The biggest issue was that the tanker was what they called "pop gassing," which as I understand it meant it was mostly leaking vapours, not the actual fluid.

The evacuated "just in case," not because there was an active problem. Traffic was moving through the area, albeit slowly, from at least 10am on.

 

[Stone_Fly]

Well it seems that just asin stream reports, there were gaps in what was reported in the initial post. Thanks Lonewolve, but shouldn't it be Lonewolf?