Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

At around 10:15 a.m., in a pharmaceutical plant, a leak was detected on an iso-container while it was being transported after having been weighed on a weighbridge near the plant. An officer noticed red traces on the container and on the ground as he passed through the guard post. The internal firefighters intervened. The capacity contained coloured water consisting of calcium lignosulphonate (9%) and canthaxanthin (1%). The quantity spilt on the roadway was estimated at 50 l.

The iso-container was checked and the nuts were retightened. At the conveyor’s workshop, the tank successfully passed a leak test. The leak was caused by 2 loose wing nuts on the manhole cover. This is a different manhole from the one used for loading. The nuts had probably not been tightened correctly. The leaks allegedly occurred during accelerations and when passing over bumps, causing product to splash against an improperly closed hatch.

Another incident involving a leak on a transport tank had already occurred at the site in December 2015 (ARIA 47726). As in the previous event, it was noted that inspecting and operating the valves on the dome is delicate (work at height requiring the use of a ladder). The operator studied the possibility of inspecting the valves, located a certain height, from ground level (remote control and recording flowmeter) in order to facilitate these interventions.