WEST MIDDLESEX, PA. Weather delays cleanup at acid-spill site on I-80

WEST MIDDLESEX, Pa. -- Excavation of soil contaminated by a hydrochloric acid spill along Interstate 80 in Shenango Township Friday is being delayed by wet weather.
Freda Tarbell, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said Monday that The Weavertown Group of Houston, Pa., has been hired to remove the soil from the grassy median where a truck carrying the acid overturned, but the weather isn't cooperating.
It's been too wet to get excavation equipment into the spill site just east of the Ohio border, she said.
When the ground is dry enough, the soil will be dug up and taken to a hazardous materials landfill.
Between 400 and 600 gallons of acid spilled from a tank mounted on a flatbed truck when the truck overturned after a front tire blew out, authorities said.
The acid ran into a ditch in the median but didn't get into a nearby stream that flows to the Shenango River.
The contamination was limited to the ditch, Tarbell said.
The spill caused an acidic vapor cloud that sent three people to the hospital. Two were treated; one was kept overnight for observation.