Tanker truck overturns on Highway 7 spilling liquid chlorine

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Newton County Sheriff Keith Slape said emergency officials were capping a liquid chlorine spill from a tanker truck that overturned Monday afternoon on Highway 7. According to Slape, the northbound truck overturned at the bottom of the mountain entering Jasper by the Newton County Library around 3:00 p.m.The crash occurred just about the time Jasper was scheduled to dismiss school for the day. Buses that normally take a route up the mountain were being diverted in different directions.

According to the Harrison Daily Times, the truck was hauling liquid chlorine, such as what is used in swimming pools. The accident created an airborne hazard. The “hot spot” was within 150 feet of the spill, Slape says, even though the original word was everyone within a half mile should evacuate.

Slape says his department was notified if the liquid was dammed, and the spill contained, it would be safe. That wouldn’t be the case if it had been chlorine gas. He says a different type of evacuation would have taken place.

At about 3:20 p.m., someone was going in to cap the spill at the tanker.

Slape says there was little wind, so contamination was held to a minimum.

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