Trucker rolls rig, spills acid along Flathead

A freight truck that crashed on Montana 35 Thursday next to Flathead Lake spilled 125 gallons of phosphoric acid.

Jon Campbell, assistant chief with the Kalispell Fire Department, said the truck leaked phosphoric acid, which is commonly used in soda but can be corrosive to skin. The Lake County disaster response team arrived on scene, and a Kalispell hazardous-materials team was called to neutralize and contain the spill.

The spill was confined to the area where the semi-truck had tipped over. It lost about half of the acid it was carrying in an auxiliary trailer.

Steven Stanley, who manages the Lake County Office of Emergency Management, called the spill a non-issue due to the contained spill and quick response of cleanup crews. He said the acid didn’t reach Flathead Lake on the other side of the highway. “The product never reached the dams and it was contained,” Stanley said. The truck tipped around 8 a.m. Thursday morning five miles south of Yellow Bay along the east shore of Flathead Lake.

According to the Montana Highway Patrol, the truck driver was distracted by the scenery and veered to the right while traveling north on the highway. No injuries were reported, but the highway was partially blocked for about 10 hours as responders worked to clear the scene. The Kalispell hazardous materials crew was called out Thursday afternoon. Campbell said that as workers moved boxes out of the overturned trailer, they eventually moved one that was covering a spill valve on the acid container. The valve released, which started the leak.

Campbell said that the freight company was Mergenthaler.

The highway was cleared and open at around 6 p.m. Thursday.