Tucson — A few pounds or a couple of tons doesn’t make much difference for emergency responders in this area. They treat them with the same caution. That was the case recently when a small amount of a “blue powder” spilled on a freeway on-ramp after a two workers with a transportation department cleanup crew complained about burning in their throat. So a Northwest Fire District hazmat team with respirators and full protective gear took over to determine the contents and clean-up requirements of the spill. “We took samples, which were analyzed in the hazmat lab as ammonium-based fertilizer,” Capt. Adam Goldberg told Green Markets. “But where it came from was a puzzle, and because of that it was determined there was no reason to attempt to find the source of the material.” Goldberg figured it probably came from a truck using the on-ramp to eastbound I-10 from the Avra Valley agriculture area. He added, “It would have amounted to only five pounds if you swept it up and put it in a box. But when anybody is exposed to a chemical, we take it very seriously. Even a small amount of chemical can be hazardous, so we addressed it this way. It was a small amount but just as important as others, because people could have been exposed.” The transportation department workers were checked over at the scene and sent on their way.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain