Boric acid spillage causes slippery roads near port

Boric acid dust spilled from trucks leaving the Port of Wilmington has caused slippery road conditions along Terminal, New Castle and New York avenues this week, leaving behind a fine, white powder.

The state hazardous materials emergency response team of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control responded to the scene Wednesday evening, DNREC spokesman Michael Globetti said.

The DNREC team tested water in the street and found it to be pH neutral, Globetti said. The agency “is satisfied that the dilution levels found will render no adverse consequences from dispersal of the water through storm drains,” he said.

Boric acid, an odorless compound similar to borax, is often used as a fire retardant, antiseptic, fungicide and insecticide.

Intercontinental Services LLC began unloading the product from a ship in port on Monday, but workers have struggled with the fine powdery material seeping or blowing out of its trucks, said John Vitale, president of the warehousing, trucking and transloading company.

“It’s not a hazardous material at all, but we were concerned with the dust,” Vitale said. “Boric acid can get slippery when it’s compressed, and people were slipping on Monday. That’s why we didn’t work it yesterday until we came up with a plan.”

ISC had a street sweeper and a water-spraying truck cleaning the roadways behind its trucks Wednesday, and that helped control dust accumulation along travel lanes, Vitale said.

“This is one of our larger shipments. We’ve handled this stuff before, but we’ve not handled it in bulk. It comes in from Turkey,” Vitale said. “We take it to our warehouse, store it inside and will package it for them in 50-pound bags, and load rail cars with it for the customer.”

Trucks are moving the boric acid from the port, down Terminal Avenue to New Castle Avenue to the ISC warehouse on New York Avenue, he said.

Gene Bailey, executive director of the Port of Wilmington, said he’d received no complaints regarding the discharge of the shipment.

Contact Melissa Nann Burke at (302) 324-2329, mburke@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @nannburke.