MONTOUR FALLS—A truck carrying 4,875 gallons of white, road paint overturned in Montour Falls and spilled into the Steuben Street ditch, Wednesday morning, Aug. 15.
    Montour Falls Fire Chief Jeff Confer explained the truck, owned by Wistar Trucking, was turning onto Steuben Street from Mill Street, when the vehicle flipped completely over and 15 containers of paint spilled into the ditch after 6 a.m.  He added the trailer truck was traveling from Virginia to Waterloo, N.Y., and had been taking a route suggested by the GPS.  Confer explained the truck itself ended the roll back on its tires.
    As of Wednesday morning, Confer said it looked like all but two of the containers were ruptured in the crash.  He explained each container had 325 gallons of epoxy paint, so almost all of the 4,875 gallons spilled.  He added that most of the paint landed in the ditch and started to spill down the side of Steuben Street, towards Genesee Street.  Confer said the loose paint was stopped within 500 feet of the accident by loads of sand being dumped into the ditch.
    The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Spill Response team and Op-Tech Environmental Services cleaned up the spill.  The work resulted in Steuben Street being closed from Genesee Street to Schuyler Hospital on Wednesday and Thursday.  Work was finished by Friday when the road was reopened.
    Chad Kehoe, spill team representative who was overseeing the work, said they collected as much of the product as possible first; The paint was being sucked into tankers by the responders.  Then, Kehoe said a pressure washer was used from the spill location down to where the paint was stopped.  He explained the product and sand collected after the wash would all ultimately be sent to a landfill after being treated.
    There were concerns Thursday that the spill would not be cleaned up before it rained.  The Montour Falls village board discussed the accident at their Aug. 16 meeting.  Confer explained even though the spill was contained, water flowing down the hill could wash some of the paint into the village.