SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – A hydrogen peroxide leak prompted the partial closure Friday morning of a road near Crystal Lake Elementary School, according to Seminole County Public Schools.
The district said Rinehart Road was closed while the Lake Mary Fire Department, Seminole County Hazmat Team, Seminole County Environmental Services and Department of Environmental Protection Emergency Response worked to contain the leak.
“They have assured us there is no danger to our students or staff, however, out of an abundance of caution, we will not be doing PE or having recess outdoors until we receive the all-clear from the fire department,” a spokesperson for the district said.
In an update from Lake Mary police around 1:45 p.m., the hazard was said to be mitigated and the treatment plant fully operational with no change to the water quality.
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Lake Mary officials went into more detail at a news conference held ahead of that update, sharing their expectations that the 2,500 gallon hydrogen peroxide tank — about half full as the conference was held — would take more time to stabilize than it actually did.
“There is some type of release of the material which we do not know why this has happened and we will not know until after we have mitigated the material completely and removed it from the tank. There has been little to no liquid release, so we do not have a major release going down the street or anything,” said Michael Johansmeyer, Lake Mary fire chief. “...We have no injuries at this time and that’s where our focus is right now. We’re expecting this to be a longer-duration incident just because of how it’s panning out here. So, our attention is to monitor this tank but also to ensure that if this goes on for hours to come, that we have rehab services, rehabilitation services, water, food, drinks for everybody that’s working the incident. We will be here until it is mitigated completely and it is done.”
The hydrogen peroxide itself is used in the water treatment process, Johansmeyer said. While vapor from the leaking tank reportedly led to the establishment of a small, no-entry “hot zone” at the treatment plant, the fire chief said that it was considered inert.
“The difference is strictly concentration. So, this concentration is much higher than what somebody would be putting on their wounds and so we would need to make sure that it’s at a level that it cannot cause harm to anywhere, and that’s by keeping it in the container it’s in now until we can get it down to a concentration that’s safe and/or working as we get further along here and pumping it out of that tank into a stable tank that can hold it,” Johansmeyer said. “The vapor is what we would call inert. So, when the vapor’s going away, there is no concern for the environment or for personnel. We have what we would call a ‘hot zone,’ which would be a contaminated zone in our world that we wouldn’t want to go in and out of just because the vapor is in that area, but it’s a very small area and it does not include anything outside of the facility of the city of Lake Mary.”
See the news conference again in the media player below:
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