A tanker truck carrying soda ash in solution from the Arkema plant in Saint-Auban, spilled approximately 300 liters on the road. It was about 600m in the direction Chateau-Arnoux at the end of Monday morning. It is the municipal road connecting the plateau of Saint-Jean with the factory and the SNCF Station, a mandatory route for heavy goods traffic.
The professional firefighters who were present at the site, which is classified Seveso 2 ("high threshold"), resolved the situation by washing several times with water. Saint-Auban's soda is 30% concentrated, which is not the case at other chlorine sites. It was not possible to neutralize with very dilute acids.
Rene Galvez
