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06/14/08 -
Town Copes with 30,000 Pounds of Carbon Black
Many Dallas City residents awoke on a June Saturday to find a layer of black powder covering their possessions, homes and property. The city and residents were affected by the spill of non hazardous carbon black, a fine powder comparable to graphite dust and commonly used in the manufacture of rubber tires and belts. A semi-trailer struck a constructions barricade causing two of the three compartments within the box trailer to crack open and begin spilling about 30,000 pounds of carbon black onto the roadway.
HMHTTC Response with its history of managing significant incidents was called in to help control and clean-up the situation. The team had an estimated 18 miles of highway to clean, along with associated sidewalks, parking lots, and grass in ditches. The company brought in additional workers and the necessary equipment from other offices around the country. Crews spent several days doing dry and wet clean-up at the intersection and continued along the route and nearby areas. By the following Friday, the team was able to get a significant amount of carbon black under control without having dust visibly fly in the air.
Kathleen Dougherty, Hancock County Emergency and Disasters Services public information officer said the cleanup crew from HMHTTC Response Inc. has been doing a good job of cleaning up the graphite-like carbon black. "Boy, you can see a difference," Dougherty said. "That first day alone when they cleaned up the intersection, and the first 100 yards past that drop site, you're talking 14,000 pounds right there.”
Clean-up and monitoring continued for weeks with the town and its people voicing pleasure with the speed and thoroughness of HMHTTC.
