A leak of potentially hazardous concrete sealer from the Scott Stadium construction quickly was cleaned up last Thursday.
Richard Laurance, director of the Carl Smith Center expansion at Scott Stadium, said that about 10 gallons of standard oil-based concrete sealer spilled off the top of the parking garage by the stadium and traveled down the storm drain.
"It went across Stadium Road. There was a call about the smell, and the fire department caught it right away," Laurance said.
Ralph Allen, chemistry professor and director of Environmental Health and Safety at the University, said the inside of the drains is made of asphalt so the petroleum that came out of the drains "looked and smelled bad."
"It was very slow moving, like heavy crude oil," Allen said.
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Britt Grimm, Battalion Chief of the Charlottesville Fire Dept., said the fire department responded to a caller around 2:15 p.m., who reported something in the stormwater management system that runs under Stadium Road and to the other side of the street.
"The companies found fuel or something floating on top of the surface of the water," Grimm said. "They put down a series of three booms," 10-foot long cylinders made of oil-absorbing material, and absorbent cotton pads across the creek and along both sides of its bank.
Grimm said the booms float on water and only absorb oil, which they did in a matter of a few hours.
According to Grimm, the last boom was almost clean, meaning the first two booms absorbed almost all the oil.
Allen said the workers applying the sealer must have been working too close to the drains or applied too much sealer so that it dripped off the top of the parking garage.
"The petroleum is a carrier so the chemical [saline] doesn't evaporate," he said.
Grimm said the fire department company was at the scene for about two and a half hours, and "contained the emergency phase" which was when the University called in a private professional hazardous waste company to finish with the cleaning and dispose of the absorbent materials.
Laurance said the waste company left the scene by 8 p.m. It came back to inspect the area on Monday, and found it satisfactory.
The sealer is "no more dangerous than gasoline," Allen said. "It is a commonly used treatment for conctrete."
Now the workers at the stadium are trying to plug the drains and watch more carefully for holes, he said.
Laurance said the sealer is used to preserve the concrete for a long period of time and to reinforce the bars on the concrete.
Grimm said spills of such materials are not uncommon, and the Charlottesville Fire Department has one trailer filled with supplies to help when this sort of chemical pollutes water or there is a fuel spill at the scene of a car accident.
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