SEARSPORT — On Sept. 30, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection reported that the spill that had occurred at GAC Chemical Corporation two weeks ago was white latex paint.

“Based on interviews and observations by DEP staff at GAC after the spill, it appears approximately 1,000 gallons of a white latex paint base was spilled from a tank onto the floor of the building,” said DEP Deputy Commissioner David Madore. “All of this, other than approximately three gallons, was recovered from the building.”

He said that approximately three gallons of the material escaped through cracks between the building concrete floor and wall and into the gravel subfloor and then into an adjacent drainage ditch.

“GAC set up pumps in the drainage ditch to collect the material that had mixed with groundwater and stormwater,” he said. “This mixture of material and groundwater and stormwater has been shipped off site to a licensed wastewater treatment facility.  GAC is continuing to monitor the drainage ditch to capture any remaining material that may seep from the gravel pad under the building and will be sealing the cracks between the building floor and wall.”

Last week, the DEP said a small amount of a polystyrene component had spilled.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s hazardous materials team responded to a reported chemical spill at GAC Chemical Corporation this past week, while an investigation of the incident remains underway.

According to DEP’s Deputy Commissioner David Madore, a, “very little amount of a polystyrene component was found to be involved.”

The spill apparently occurred Friday, Sept. 22, and members of the DEP’s Haz Mat team has been onsite this week. That team concluded, “there was no need for additional action on their part,” said Madore, Sept. 26.

GAC Chemical Corporation, an employee-owned company, is located on 152 acres on Kidder Point in Searsport at the head of Penobscot Bay, manufactures and distributes industrial, specialty, and fine inorganic and organic chemicals for the paper mills, power plants, agriculture, and waste water treatment plants. It is a producer of ammonium sulfate, liquid alum, sodium aluminate, aqua ammonia, liquid urea, polyvinyl alcohol, hollow sphere plastic pigment and coatings. 

It has not been determined if the chemical component released in the ocean.