BUCKSPORT — As much as 6,000 gallons of liquid latex used in the papermaking process may have leaked into the Penobscot River Friday evening, May 25, following a train derailment near the Orrington town line.

Four tank cars that were part of a 32-car train headed for the Verso paper mill went off the tracks shortly after 7 p.m. Friday. No one was injured in the derailment. Two of the cars were carrying kaolin, a clay slurry used in the papermaking process, while the other two were carrying a chemical known as emulsified styrene-butadiene copolymer.

The latter chemical, according to Maine Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Samantha DePoy-Warren, is a “kind of liquid latex used in the coated papermaking process.” She said one application for it is in the making of candy wrappers.

While the cars carrying clay slurry did not leak, one of the cars carrying liquid latex did leak. DePoy-Warren said DEP, working in conjunction with the Bucksport Fire Department, estimated that 4,000 to 6,000 gallons of the material was released into the river.

The car was carrying 23,000 gallons of the liquid latex, according to DePoy-Warren. She said the exact quantity that leaked won’t be known until the product still in the car is offloaded.

DEP staff will supervise the transfer of chemicals from the derailed cars. DePoy-Warren, speaking May 29, said she didn’t know yet whether it would be offloaded onto a boat or onto empty rail cars brought to the scene.

Repair work to the section of track where the derailment occurred was completed May 28, according to Cynthia Scarano, executive vice president with Pan Am. She said large cranes will be brought in to remove the derailed cars once they are empty, because they are “much too heavy” to move when full.

The liquid latex is not considered a hazardous waste, according to DePoy-Warren, but she said DEP works to monitor the situation anytime a large quantity of a chemical is released into the environment.

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