Leaking Barrels Close I-90 Rest Stop Canadian Driver Cited, Sent On Way After Contents Found Not Dangerous

Freeway travelers were unable to use Interstate 90’s eastbound Huetter rest stop for about four hours Saturday afternoon while firefighters investigated a suspicious spill.

A tractor-trailer from Canada was detained after Port of Entry officials noticed a white, foamy substance leaking out of four barrels on the trailer.

“He’s not going to move from here until we know what’s going on,” said Bill Schwartz, Kootenai County Disaster Services coordinator, who was called to the scene.

The Regional Hazardous Materials Team, an interagency team of firefighters trained in handling hazardous materials, took samples of the substance and determined that it was only mildly caustic.

“It was caustic enough that it caused a reaction for one of the employees of the port who got some on him,” explained Don McNett, deputy chief of operations for the Post Falls Fire District.

McNett compared the strength of the substance to laundry soap.

After discovering the substance wasn’t dangerous, the haz-mat team tightened the lids on the four barrels so they wouldn’t leak.

The driver, David Stubbs of Mission, B.C., was cited for sloppy paperwork. Stubbs himself told officials that he didn’t think his documentation was correct.

“His paperwork was all messed up,” Schwartz said.

The barrels were marked hazardous, and the shipping documents said the barrels contained caustic soda crystals. In fact, the barrels held a relatively benign mix of mining materials en route to Windsor, Conn., for precious metals extraction.

The truck belonged to Can-Am West, a Canadian hauler, out of Abbotsford, B.C. It carried 24 barrels of the material on a flat-bed trailer along with another semitruck.

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