CHEMICAL SPILL AT PLANT CLOSES NASH ROAD

Nash Road was closed to traffic for a short time Monday following a chemical spill at the Biokyowa manufacturing plant that was blamed on a faulty valve of a tanker truck.

The incident occurred as the driver of the truck, Mark Gallagher of St. Louis, was attempting to attach a hose to begin the process of unloading hydrochloric acid shortly before 7 a.m., authorities said.

The driver took off the valve cover and about 500 gallons of the acid spilled out of the tanker before the flow could be shut off, said Capt. Robert Kembel of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department.

Kembel said there were no serious injuries. Some of the acid spilled onto the driver, but he driver quickly washed it off his arm in an emergency shower at the plant, Kembel said.

"If you flush it immediately there is really no danger," said Charlie Goodpasture, operations manager for Biokyowa. He said the hazardous chemical spilled onto the blacktop pavement at the plant. Goodpasture said the tanker truck carried about 5,000 gallons of the acid. The truck is owned by Commercial Cartage Co. of St. Louis.

Kembel said the fire department received the call at 6:51 a.m. Six Cape Girardeau firefighters, including Kembel, and a pumper truck from Station No. 2 responded, arriving at 6:59 a.m. Firefighters remained on the scene for about an hour and a half.

But Kembel said that by the time firefighters arrived plant personnel had contained the spill.

"Basically, what we did was stand by and we shut traffic off on Nash Road until we had the situation under control," said Kembel.

Goodpasture said the plant's emergency response team built a dike of soda ash around the spill and used the soda ash to neutralize the acid.

He stressed the importance of neutralizing the acid. "It is a fuming acid, so you could get some fumes off of it."

Kembel said hydrochloric acid can burn skin and eyes upon contact. In the case of a fire, it can produce irritating or poisonous gasses, he said.

Kembel praised the plant's emergency response team. "Biokyowa really had their act together on that. Basically, their people handled the whole problem."

Goodpasture said it's important to be prepared for such emergencies. "It's kind of like an earthquake: you've got to think about it before it happens," he said.

In addition to the firefighters, authorities responding included a Missouri Highway Patrol officer and Brian Miller, Cape Girardeau County's emergency preparedness director.

Goodpasture said Nash Road was closed to traffic for about half an hour, re-opening around 7:30 a.m.