By Patrick Anderson and Michael Farrell
Staff writers
July 31, 2008 03:32 am The odor of sewage hung in the air along Route 133 from Gloucester to Rowley for several hours yesterday after a truck hauling human waste from the city's sewage treatment plant leaked, spilling noxious liquid over the roadway. Workers at the Essex Avenue plant warned the driver of the truck, owned by Sam's Transportation Inc. of Georgetown, that latches on the vehicle's tanks were loose before he drove out of the plant around 6 a.m. yesterday, City Engineer Frank Ventimiglia said. "A trucking company was loaded up with sludge and was told that the 'dogs,' which are latches, were not operating properly," Ventimiglia said. "He proceeded and dripped sludge from here to Rowley until police stopped him." Gloucester Patrolman Vincent Adelsio noticed an unpleasant odor and "oily substance" on the road while driving on Essex Avenue near Tony's Mobile Mart at 6:30 a.m. and followed it all the way to the Essex line. After tracing the source of the liquid to the sewage plant and speaking with workers there, Gloucester police called state highway officials, setting off a chain of calls to police departments in Essex, Ipswich and Rowley. Ipswich police identified the truck on Route 133 and pulled it over just across the town line in Rowley. The truck was "leaking black waste under the rear tailgate," Ipswich police Lt. Dan Moriarty said. Ipswich police charged the trucking company and fined it $200. The State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section along with the state Department of Environmental Protection also inspected the truck. State police Sgt. Thomas Fitzgerald said the vehicle passed the inspection despite the latch failure, which allowed the spread of a material with the consistency of "wet sand" on the roadway. According to Fitzgerald, it is not an uncommon occurrence for trucks with liquid loads to leak and it happens about once a month in Massachusetts. If the latch is not completely secure, he said, and the load is liquid, a truck can leak. And it only takes a little bit of pressure to pop the seam, especially if a truck is going uphill. Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Joe Ferson said at this point no charges have been filed by the state against the truck company. No charges were filed by Gloucester, Essex or Rowley police. Ventimiglia said the Gloucester treatment plant ships waste out of town for further treatment about once a month. The Sam's Transportation truck was taking the load to a waste facility in Portland, Maine, he said, but the driver had said he intended to fix the latch in Georgetown before completing the journey. The city will send a letter to Sam's Transportation warning the contractor that Gloucester would not use its services again if another spill occurred. "It shouldn't have happened," Ventimiglia said. "They should have found a way to have it fixed."
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