LOWER LAKE ? Two Job Zone employees drove to Redbud Community Hospital Friday after breathing the vapors of an acidic material found in a toilet tank where they worked on Highway 53 and Jesse Street in Lower Lake, according to Lake County Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Willie Sapeta.
The employees called 911, at 11:23 a.m. Approximately 10 LCFPD personnel, including a hazmat team, and a deputy sheriff arrived and secured the area before turning it over to Lake County Environmental Health at 2:15 p.m., Sapeta said.
“They (the employees) complained of a metallic taste in the back of their throats, burning eyes and burning throats,” Sapeta said. No update about the employees” condition was available at press time.
Sapeta said the toilet will need to be removed. A hazmat team wearing protective gear took a sample of the substance in the toilet tank before sealing it inside the tank.
“It might have been hydrochloric acid,” Sapeta said.
Testing of the reddish-brown substance revealed that it had a Ph of one on a scale of zero to 14, with zero being most acidic, according to Sapeta.
Sapeta said it was unknown Friday evening how the substance got inside the toilet tank. Lake Count Environmental Health will handle any investigation into the matter, he said.
“They are probably going to neutralize it with a strong base and arrange for disposal at a hazmat dump site,” Sapeta said.
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