A Community Waste Solutions Bobcat ran over a container containing unidentified chemical irritants Wednesday, sending two employees to the Haines medical clinic and forcing the town’s landfill to close for several days.
“We’re not sure what it was, but the chemicals became airborne and impacted two of my employees,” said CWS spokesperson Sally Garton. “(The chemicals) burned their eyes, nose and throat. They were right on top of it when it happened so they were taken to the clinic. They were cleared to go home.”
Fire chief Brian Clay said the fire department was notified after the employees were taken to the clinic, one of whom vomited. He said other employees began complaining of similar symptoms and the company evacuated the area and closed it off to the public.
Clay noticed a green, chalky substance about a foot in diameter in the bay were the incident occurred, an area that is sometimes piled with household garbage.
He said the culprit might be an organic phosphate commonly found in fertilizer.
Clay said employees described a cloud of white dust come from the garbage after the sound of an explosion.
“It was something that was pressurized because they saw a cloud of white dust,” Clay said.
Clay also saw a gallon-sized plastic bottle of “weed killer that looked like it had been smooshed.” Clay said a closed plastic container might explode if a large vehicle ran over it and it would likely make a popping sound the employees described.
Multiple aerosol cans including bear spray, insect repellant and a pesticide were lying around the area, but no container was identified as the one the equipment ran over, Garton said.
Local safety officials contacted a federal poison control expert and collected all the possible contaminants.
Community Waste Solutions notified the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation that they would be doing a one-time bury of the garbage in the area that was exposed to the chemicals.
Clay said the only remaining hazard is confined to the building where the container apparently exploded. “The only community hazard right now is people leaving their garbage out for bears to get into,” he said.