Sept. 19--Firefighters and hazardous materials crews are trying to contain a chemical that leaked into a tributary of Pine Run this morning in Washington Township.
Police Chief Scott Slagle said the chemical, styrene-butadiene polymer, is a rubber compound used as a concrete additive. It apparently was spilled from a site along Route 380 owned by Modified Concrete Suppliers.
According to Slagle, who is also the township's emergency management coordinator, Modified employees dumped about 800 gallons of the water-diluted, milky-white substance on to a hillside on its property and the chemical made its way to the creek. The situation was first reported at about 7 a.m. today.
Slagle said the chemical is not hazardous to humans. There were no immediate reports of fish in Pine Run being killed.
Emergency crews from Washington Township and Oklahoma Borough were on scene, as was Westmoreland County Haz-Mat. The chemical has been seen in the creek downstream from where it was dumped and had made it as far as Kunkle Park by 12 noon.
The state Department of Environmental Protection was on the scene and the state Fish and Game Commission were being contacted, Slagle said.
Map
Copyright 2013 - The Valley News-Dispatch, Tarentum, Pa.
