Chemical Spill Shuts Roads

The streets around Brattle Square closed for almost four hours yesterday afternoon as the city’s hazardous material team responded to a leak in a chemical truck.

Two containers holding a lubricating oil and a glycol mixture used as a coolant leaked inside the truck but did not make it out onto the street, according to Thomas J. Aicardi, executive vice president of Triumvirate Environmental, the company that owns the truck.

These chemicals are non-hazardous, but they are regulated and can’t be put down the sewer, said Cambridge Fire Department Chief Gerald Reardon. The truck, which was on its way to dispose of the chemicals, was not carrying any toxic materials.

The leak occurred around 12:15 p.m. at the intersection of Mt. Auburn and Eliot streets. The streets were closed and traffic was rerouted until shortly before 4 p.m.

The drums holding the chemicals began to leak after the truck stopped short at an intersection due to another vehicle, said Deputy Chief Frank E. Murphy of the Cambridge Fire Department.

“When the truck stopped abruptly, the load shifted and one of the containers inside got caught by the metal trim on the base of the truck, so there was a small leak,” said Murphy, who led the team that responded to the chemical leak.

Although Murphy said the second vehicle did not hit the truck when he was at the scene yesterday afternoon, Aicardi said it did collide with the trailer end of the truck.

He said the vehicle was attempting to make a left turn at the intersection and did not realize that the truck was going straight. The truck was forced to stop short, he said, but the other vehicle could not avoid a collision.

“The truck was not damaged. The car was damaged. It was still drivable but there was damage to the front left end,” he said.

The hazardous material response team came to the scene to determine which containers in the truck were leaking and whether the materials were hazardous. The chemicals were then transferred into another truck and taken to the company’s facility, where they will be put into new containers.

“None of the material actually got onto the ground or into the city [sewer] system at all. It was all captured and taken away,” Reardon said.

The truck was carrying chemicals from Triumvirate’s headquarters in Somerville to East Chicago, Ind. for disposal. Although Triumvirate does work at Harvard, none of the waste on the truck was from the University, Aicardi said.

The company has completed the clean-up work and plans to meet with the fire department to follow up, but Aicardi said this is an isolated incident.

“Triumvirate has an excellent record in safety for transportation of hazardous material and hazardous waste. We’ve never had an incident that resulted in a release to the environment,” he said.

The fire department will conduct a routine follow-up investigation to make sure the leak was handled properly.

“It was taken care of in a very professional and timely manner,” Reardon said. “A lot of times we have spills that wind up in the street and no one can be held accountable, so we have to find the offending party...Here we know who the party is and they are paying for clean up.”