MEDWAY, Maine — An allegedly drunken Tennessee truck driver, heading to Bucksport to deliver chemicals used in papermaking, missed his turn on Interstate 95 by nearly 75 miles Sunday night and then crashed his big rig spilling most of the chemicals he was carrying, officials said.
The tractor-trailer went off the roadway 11 miles north of Medway, Trooper Thomas Fiske of the Maine State Police said Monday afternoon by cell phone from the scene.
“He was quite a ways off his path,” he said.
The highway was closed to traffic after the 9 p.m. crash while the Penobscot County hazardous material response team of Orono and Old Town, with help from East Millinocket firefighters, isolated the area and identified the chemicals, Orono Fire Chief Buddy Webb said Monday.
The haz-mat team arrived at the same time as representatives from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, who took control of the scene.
In addition to the corrosive papermaking chemicals, two containers on the truck that spilled held what is classified as a marine pollutant. It is an industrial biocide that’s used in water treatment facilities, Barbara Parker, DEP division of response service director, said Monday evening.
Kenneth Taylor, 45, of Memphis, Tenn., was driving a 2006 Peterbilt tractor-trailer north on Interstate 95 and drifted off the right side of the roadway at mile marker 255, which is in T1 R6, 11 miles north of Medway. Taylor, who was driving for MLG Trucking, of Memphis, was arrested and charged with aggravated operating under the influence.
“He leaves the roadway and crashes into the ditch on the right side where there is a ledge,” Fiske said. “The ledge sliced the trailer open and spilled the chemicals.
“Out of 13 [totes or plastic containers], all but two were broken open with their contents emptied out onto the ground,” he said.
John Selleck, DEP oil and hazardous materials specialist who works out of the Bangor office, said only one of the 13 containers remained intact after the crash.
“Twelve of 13 totes leaked, and 10 were empty,” he said.
Several of the 330-gallon plastic totes flew into the front of the trailer during the crash and some were pinned underneath the demolished big rig, Selleck said.
The DEP checked and double checked the chemicals, comparing them to inventory lists and with the two paper mills where they were destined. Taylor was supposed to stop at Verso Paper Co. in Bucksport first and then head over to Madison Paper Industries in Madison, officials said.
After determining the toxicity of the chemicals, listed as sodium hydrosulfide, citric acid and other caustic acids along with glutaraldehyde and Busan 1210, two common industrial biocides, the DEP allowed one lane of the highway to open at 5:15 a.m. The DEP then began using a special Vactor truck to vacuum up as much of the spilled chemicals as possible, Parker said.
Once the truck was removed, which happened just before 5 p.m. Monday, the DEP was able to test the soils underneath, she said.
“We’re going to be returning tomorrow to use the Vactor truck again and do some excavation” to see how deep the chemicals infiltrated the ground, Parker said. With Saturday’s heavy rains, “probably more soaked into the ground,” she said.
Once the depth of the spill is calculated, that’s when the DEP can “start dealing with the chemicals that have been spilled,” Selleck said.
The trucking company Taylor was working for hired a commercial cleanup crew to do the work, he said. It’s too early to say exactly how the chemical spill will be cleaned, Selleck said at 2 p.m., adding it’s likely contaminated soils will need to be removed.
One of the four chemicals on the trailer that burst left a milky white substance all over the area around the side of the big rig and the ledge, said Webb, who added that haz-mat crews left the scene at 4:30 a.m.
An Intoxilyzer test showed that Taylor had a blood alcohol level of 0.16, double the state’s legal limit of 0.08, Fiske said. The OUI charge was upgraded to a felony because of the crash and the high alcohol level, the trooper said. After his arrest, Taylor was taken to Penobscot County Jail in Bangor.
An initial check showed that Taylor had never had a previous OUI in Maine, but “he does have some commercial vehicle type violations from several different states,” Fiske said.
After spending the night in jail, Taylor was released after his first appearance in 3rd District Court in Bangor on Monday afternoon, a jail official said.