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A motorcyclist has come forward with a new clue and an intriguing new theory about a big acid spill that's forced a week-long shutdown of a freeway onramp.
The motorcyclist says a slippery, wet trail on the freeway almost spun him out of control early last Friday, and he thinks it was dumped by the same truck responsible for the acid spill.
The motorcyclist claims he saw a trail of liquid five miles long the morning of the acid spill. Scientific tests today failed to confirm it, but if his story holds up, it lends support to Kennecott's position that the company was not involved.
Greg Watson was riding his bike to work from Tooele to Salt Lake last Friday about 4:30 a.m. He says he saw a liquid on the road that started on Highway 36 from Tooele where it enters I-80. The wet streak continued onto the freeway in the right-hand lane.
"I slipped, almost lost control of my bike here. So I had to get in the other lane to get out of it. On a bike, I just don't like thinking about wrecking, you know," Watson said.
Watson saw no truck, just a wet trail he paralleled for five miles.
The story gets more interesting at the Saltair off-ramp. "I noticed the trail going off I-80 up on the exit 102, which is the Saltair exit," Watson said.
He didn't see a truck parked there, but a few hundred feet ahead, on the return on-ramp, a massive acid spill was noticed just a couple of hours later. Watson thinks a leaking truck pulled over, dumped its load and re-entered the freeway.
When we called, authorities came out and tested along Watson's route. They found no evidence of acid. It casts doubt, but it's not conclusive. Kevin Okleberry, with the Salt Lake Valley Health Department, said, "It is possible that there could have been acid, or it was either too small for the test to detect or it's already been neutralized by the surface of the pavement."
Whether Watson's scenario is valid or not, it looks like the investigation is at another dead end, unless more information comes in.
Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) spokesman Nile Easton said, "You know, if somebody happened to see something, we definitely want to encourage people to call in so we can go after them and make them pay this bill."
The number to call is the Health Department's, 313-6700.
The reason Watson's theory helps Kennecott is because Kennecott's acid trucks often enter at that interchange, but they would be most unlikely to exit there and then get back on the freeway.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
