Pool Chemical Spill Snarls Highway Traffic
The discovery of bottles leaking muriatic acid, a common swimming pool maintenance chemical, stopped traffic on Highway 23 and brought out a hazardous materials team in Moorpark on Tuesday afternoon.
The bottles apparently slid from the back of a vehicle negotiating the wide curves of the Olsen Road onramp to the southbound highway, said California Highway Patrol Officer Russell Carver. Investigators called to the scene at 11:40 a.m. found a cardboard box with two broken one-gallon bottles of the acid.
CHP officers closed lanes on Highway 23 and Olsen Road during the incident, which lasted about three hours.
“We were lucky it wasn’t during peak traffic hours,” Carver said. “But with two fewer lanes on the highway and the road, traffic got pretty backed up anyway.”
Jan Poe, 49, of Simi Valley stopped her car near the spill.
“Before the CHP got there, she had car problems and stopped,” Carver said. “She went home, decided she wasn’t feeling well, and drove back to the scene to say she wasn’t well.”
Paramedics took Poe to Columbia Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, where hospital officials said she was treated and released. There were no other injuries as a result of the incident.
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