Truck's leak shuts Conway lot

By Kenneth Heard

Posted: July 30, 2009 at 5:28 a.m.

• Print item
• E-mail
• Share
• Tweet

LITTLE ROCK — A truck leaking a cleaning fluid forced the closure of a Conway Wal-Mart Supercenter parking lot for about five hours Wednesday morning and caused some tense moments, officials said.

No one was injured when about 10 gallons of sodium hydrochlorite leaked from a tractor-trailer rig parked overnight on the lot at 1155 U.S. 65, said Tommy Jackson, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management.

The truck driver, whom officials did not name, stopped in the lot and slept there Tuesday evening. He was bound for Fort Smith the next day, said Sheila Maxwell, director of the Faulkner County Office of Emergency Management.

Firefighters found that the chemical leaked from a faulty valve on a container.

Sodium hydrochlorite is a type of cleaning bleach and can be harmful to skin and eyes, Maxwell said. It can also mix with other chemicals and become corrosive or even explosive.

The truck also contained organic peroxide, which can be flammable when mixed withother chemicals.

"It could have been worse if any of the products mixed," Maxwell said. "We were not sure what we were dealing with at first. We were checking the bill of lading with what was in the truck to see what it was."

Fire officials cordoned off 300 square feet of the parking area on the north side of the lot, Conway Fire Marshal Randy Freeman said. The store was not closed.

A team from U.S. Environmental Services from Little Rock cleaned the spill Wednesday morning.

The parking lot was opened again by 2:30 p.m., Maxwell said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/30/2009

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.