October 08, 2003
Houston drivers are facing a difficult commute this morning:
About 4:30 Wednesday morning, the driver of an SUV lost control of his vehicle during a tire blow out and struck the 18-wheeler carrying Hydrochloric Acid.
HCl is a pretty nasty substance. Hazmat teams are working on the problem, but how do they deal with this kind of problem? Do they actually remove the acid or just use a base to neutralize it? If they do neutralize it, what is the resulting product and how do they deal with that? The news will undoubtably inform the city when the clean-up is complete, but it is doubtful that they will explain what it takes to pull it off.
The 18-wheeler rolled on its side, spilling the load of hazardous material on the northbound side of Interstate 45. The spill has closed the northbound side of I-45, the HOV lane, and the northbound feeder of I-45.
