A brake failure on a truck rural in northeast Mitchell resulted in a toxic spill late Saturday and minor injuries to the truck's driver.
Davison County Sheriff's Deputy Steve Harr said Jason Jarding, 34, of Alexandria, was headed downhill at the north end of North Gale Road about 7:20 p.m. when the brakes went out on his spray tender truck.
Jarding tried to maintain control of the truck as it headed downhill toward 251st Street and made a 90-degree left turn.
County Emergency Management Director Jim Montgomery said Jarding pulled a hard left, narrowing missing a natural gas valve installation, but he was unable to keep the water-filled truck from rolling onto its top.
Harr said the truck's water tank survived intact, but a secondary tank with about 200 gallons of Roundup, a glyphosate herbicide, was partly crushed, resulting in an estimated 20- to 30-gallon loss of the undiluted liquid. About 350 pounds of dry ammonium sulfate fertilizer was also spilled, some of which was later reclaimed.
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No citations were issued in the incident, and a family member drove Jarding to Avera Queen of Peace Hospital for treatment of minor cuts and bruises, Harr said.
Mitchell firefighter Chad Van Laecken was part of the team that responded to the accident.
He said there was some puddling of the spilled chemical and he and two other crew members hand dug a small trench and filled it with floor-dry absorbent to soak up the spill. "The Jarding family brought out a transfer pump and pumped the unspilled chemical from the damaged tank to a secondary tank," he said.
Van Laecken said the incident could have been much more serious if Jarding had hit the natural gas installation.
Montgomery said the incident was immediately reported to the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. According to that agency, Jarding will be responsible for the costs of mitigating the spill and any effects at the site, which is immediately west of the James River. Montgomery said he was unsuccessful Saturday in attempts to inform landowner Scott Suelflow of the incident.
Jarding must remove the contaminated soil and dispose of it at an approved site, said Montgomery, but no information was immediately available as to what entity will supervise clean-up efforts.
"A representative from Pierre may come down, but I don't know for certain at this time," Montgomery said.
Ross Dolan is reporter at The Daily Republic in Mitchell, S.D., which is owned by
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