New details have been released on the chemical spill earlier this week that snarled traffic for hours in Barrigada. While the responsible party was able to contain and cleanup the spill without further impacts, the Guam Environmental Protection Agency says it’s a lesson learned for what could have led to serious contamination to our water and soil. 

On Monday morning, emergency and environmental officials responded to a chemical spill near the Shell gas station in Tiyan. Roads were partially closed, snarling traffic for hours until all lanes were back open after 3pm. 

The Guam EPA says the incident occurred when a Black Construction transport vehicle load shifted when the operator was making a turn from Route 16 onto Route 10, causing multiple unsecured drums to fall off the bed of the truck.  The agency’s acting deputy administrator, Glenn San Nicolas, says one 55-gallon drum ruptured, spilling a concrete curing compound onto the road and sidewalk, two gallons of which went into a storm drain. 

"But fortunately," San Nicolas told KUAM News, "the road and the weather was dry and hot, that a lot of the compound dried on the road itself and was collected. The liquid stuff was collected in the storm drain by BCC, who went into the storm drain to pump it out."

It was a close call as the responsible party was able to contain and clean up the spill before it reached the ponding basin and affect the ground water. San Nicolas says if the concrete hardener was released into the storm drain during inclement weather, it could cause significant environmental damage. 

"That storm drain leads into a ponding basin that is near the service station on Route 10. And if it went in there, it would impact the soil contamination and possibly the water contamination as well," San Nicolas added.

While EPA did not issue a notice of violation, the Guam Police Department issued the operator a citation for an unsecured load. The takeaway, the says, is to always secure your load, no matter what you’re transporting. 

"Because if it’s not secured," said the acting deputy administrator, "what would happen is that it would go airborne and either crash into another car or it might spill onto the ground, into the storm drain and out into the ocean, or the ponding basin where it could impact our groundwater."