Predawn Safety Operation on Cummington Mall Tomorrow
Stored chemical will be neutralized for safe disposal
Employees from Clean Harbors Waste Disposal Services, accompanied by police and fire personnel, will neutralize an old chemical supply of sodium amide on Cummington Mall starting at 4 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, July 12. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky
Insomniacs awake at 4 a.m. tomorrow shouldn’t panic if they look out their window and see police, firefighters, and workers in hazardous materials suits converging on Cummington Mall. It’s a carefully planned predawn neutralization of an old chemical stored at 24 Cummington.
Employees from Clean Harbors Waste Disposal Services, the Massachusetts-based hazardous waste management company used by the University, will take a coffee cup–sized amount of sodium amide, currently kept in a registered hazardous chemical storage room, to the corner of the mall and Blandford Street, where they will treat it with another chemical to neutralize it, so that it can later be moved and safely disposed of, says Paul Kelly, environmental manager with the University’s Environmental Health and Safety office.
Sodium amide, often used as a strong base in organic chemistry, is the preferred reagent for the drying of ammonia. The compound can be flammable or explosive when it reacts with water; the neutralization will make it safe for disposal, which Clean Harbors will do in about two weeks at an off-campus hazardous waste site, Kelly says. The neutralization work is expected to take no more than an hour.
The Boston University Police Department and the Boston Fire Department will oversee the operation.
The scene may resemble a bomb squad in action, Kelly says, but the reality will be more prosaic. “This is not the first time we’ve done this,” he says of the many chemicals used in BU laboratories. “They’ll neutralize the chemical. It should be completely unnoticeable.”
Any bystanders awake at that hour “may see BUPD cruisers down at that corner,” he says. “They may see a fire truck driving down Cummington Mall and possibly a small contingent of people wearing protective equipment from Clean Harbors.”
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