Lihu‘e Industrial Park II reopened to the public last night after officials neutralized the chemical spill in a bunker in a Trex warehouse, an official from Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s office said yesterday. Hazardous material technicians from PENCO, an O‘ahu-based clean-up
Lihu‘e Industrial Park II reopened to the public last night after officials neutralized the chemical spill in a bunker in a Trex warehouse, an official from Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s office said yesterday.
Hazardous material technicians from PENCO, an O‘ahu-based clean-up company, applied sodium bicarbonate to the spill, turning it into a gel-like substance, Mary Daubert said. The substance was then placed in a sealed container and removed.
PENCO officials determined the level of contaminants in the Trex warehouse was low on Saturday night, half a day after a faulty valve led to a methyltrichlorosilane spill around 8:30 a.m.
Daubert said a PENCO team worked until midnight on Saturday, sealing the valves of four storage tanks.
Yesterday, a PENCO team entered the bunker and disconnected all the storage tanks, then removed the tanks from the bunker in the warehouse and disassembled the flooring in the bunker to do a thorough examination of the area.
The industrial park was closed to the public for much of the weekend. Area business owners were granted brief access only for emergencies, and were escorted by security while on the premises.
