South Carolina DHEC looking into chemical spill in Chester

A chemical company in Chester unintentionally released an acrylic product outside of the building, according to the company and the S.C. Department of Health and Enviornmental Control officials.

A state health official said in a statement late Friday “there will be no likely impact to human health or the environment” as a result of the spill.

Specialty Polymers, Inc. is located at 869 Old Richburg Road in Chester. The product released is a non-hazardous, water-based acrylic latex polymer, said Steve Dobson, a sales manager at the company.

“We’re working with DHEC to clean it up as efficiently as we can,” Dobson said.

In a statement late Friday, DHEC’s Tim Kelly indicated the department received a complaint Monday and investigated the same day.

“The material released (Nov. 11) was an acrylic emulsion which is similar to water-based, house paint with no pigment.”

The plant contained the release Nov. 11 and determined there was no known offsite impact at that time, Kelly said.

It appears that because of rain Nov. 12, “residual paint product from the spill did discharge into Hopper Creek,” Kelly said in the statement. The discharge was identified Monday morning.

“The plant has hired a contractor to clean up the release and made changes to its stormwater discharge to prevent releases like this in the future,” Kelly said. “The plant has sampled (and will continue to sample) the creek for the paint product and its constituents. DHEC also sampled the creek. Based on the information presented, there will be no likely impact to human health or the environment. Specialty Polymers and DHEC continue to monitor the area.”

Dobson of Specialty Polymers said this is the first spill at the Chester location.

This story was originally published November 17, 2017 at 5:20 PM with the headline "South Carolina DHEC looking into chemical spill in Chester."