Authorities Respond to Hydrochloric Acid Leak at Cargill

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From a Cedar Rapids news release:

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department remain on scene of a hydrochloric acid leak at Cargill, 1710 16^th Street SE.  At 1:12 p.m. a Hazardous Materials entry team strapped an air bag to the side of the tank of the semi-trailer to stop the leak.  At this time, the patch appears to be holding.  The product will still need to be off-loaded onto another tanker, which will take at least one hour. 

The Fire Department is being assisted by the Linn County Hazardous Materials Team.  The team has identified an approximately nickel-sized hole in the side of the tank that is caused hydrochloric acid to leak.  Earlier today there was also an acidic mist, but there has not been any mist around the area since mid-morning. 

The incident is contained to the Cargill property and there have been no evacuations required in the immediate area.  However, the police department is continuing to assist by keep the public out of the area until the incident is mitigated.

There have been no injuries reported.  The truck that was off-loading hydrochloric acid is owned by Quest Liner from Dubuque.  No further information is available.

The Gazette has a few additional details about the acid leak, but clearly questions remain.

A truck driver had noticed the leak coming out of a semi-trailer as he was loading his truck Sunday morning.

The tank at Cargill, 1710 16th Street SE, holds 46,000 pounds of hydrochloric acid. Greg Buelow, Cedar Rapids Fire Department’s public information officer, said the tank appears to have a hole in the side.

Firefighters are working with Cargill to try to find a strategy to off-load the rest of the acid that is in the tank. They have contained the leak and it is not hurting any of the area around the property.