| UPDATE 4/8 - 10 A.M. - (WSAZ) -- DEP officials say that while crews haven't completed their investigation into a chemical spill that happened Tuesday night in Spencer, initial indications show that the liquid that came from the truck was rainwater.
The spill had several roads shut down in Spencer while crews worked to clean it up.
DEP Spokesperson Kelley Gillenwater says two members of the DEP's emergency response team tested the pH level of every wet surface they could find inside and outside the truck. All of those tests came back neutral.
Gillenwater says if this had been a corrosive material, as it was originally reported, the pH would have been low.
Also, the DEP crews used air monitoring devices that would have picked up volatiles, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon monoxide or chlorine, but none of those chemicals were detected.
The driver allegedly indicated that he had driven through heavy rain. Also, a box he had been hauling, which contained a stove that was to be delivered to Spencer, was wet. The stove, which was inside the truck, also had water pooled on top of it.
Crews say because the truck was parked at an angle with the trailer facing downward, it appears that rainwater was able to come in through the leaky trailer and drained out the back.
Also, even though there could have been some residual material, the paperwork for the tote with the faulty valve indicated that the container was empty.
The truck was a single 53-foot box trailer.
UPDATE 4/08 - All roads around the Spencer area of Roane County have reopened after a truck spilled a chemical in the downtown area, and reportedly spilled the substance for miles on the highway leading into town.
Officials are now saying that the the identification of the spilled chemical is in question.
Kelley Gillenwater, spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Enviromental Protection, said a truck owned by Estes Trucking and based out of Belpre, Ohio, was coming from Ravenswood in Jackson County when the driver stopped in Spencer around 3 p.m.
She said the truck was hauling other freight, like appliances, in addition to the chemical containers, and she didn't know why the driver stopped in Spencer.
Gillenwater said the incident is under investigation.
Photos courtesy of Chris Fountaine
ORIGINAL STORY 4/7/2015 =A hadardous materials spill happened on Spencer's Main Street Tuesday evening, causing traffic to be re-routed.
The spill has caused an area between Market Street and Rt. 14 to be shut down, with residents reporting an "ammonia-like odor that burns eyes."
The compound identified as sodium bisulfate was in containers on an 18-wheeler box truck that had come into Spencer earlier in the day from a run in Ravenswood, according to Roane 911.
The material was spotted by a passerby at 5:59 p.m. when that person alerted Roane County 911. The driver was reportedly unaware the material had spilled.
A HAZMAT team called Environmental Management Specialists in Columbus, Ohio has responded to the scene for clean-up. The clean-up will take several hours.
The 911 center said the protocol listed for this compound is to keep people away in a 150 foot radius.
Roane's emergency responders are on scene.
There have been no injuries reported.
Traffic is currently being re-routed through town on different roads.
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