Ballance site manager in Whangārei, Mark Adams, said the spill was really disappointing as it was the first time it has happened in the 32 years the company has been transporting pure sulphur from the refinery.
Liquid sulphur is a by-product of the refinery used by Ballance in fertiliser mixes. Adams assured the public the bright yellow product was pretty benign and that motorists should simply wash it off if the sulphur came into contact with their vehicles.
"The welding in the tank had failed but it shouldn't have leaked as the tank is welded pretty well. A hole the size of the little finger developed in one of the welds that connects to the trailer,'' he said.
"The driver wasn't able to see at that time of the evening. The spill built up when he stopped at the lights by Harvey Norman and that's where we cleaned up as much as we could on Thursday evening."
Adams said the leak started at the intersection of Port Marsden Highway and SH1, not from the refinery itself.
"It was one those things that happened as a result of equipment failure. That was an eight-year-old tank and we've taken it off the road and will look into it. We've had over 50,000 loads in the last 32 years and we've never had this problem," he said.
NRC group manager regulator services Colin Dall said the council was notified of the sulphur spill by a Ballance staff on Friday.
Regional council staff inspected sections of the road affected by the spill and observed some residual sulphur on the road. Any adverse environmental effects from the residual sulphur are considered to be minor, he said.
NZ Transport Agency Northland system manager Jacqui Hori-Hoult said the sulphur was non-toxic.
"We swept the road and employed Hydrotech to waterblast and watercut the solid sulphur from the road surface particularly at the intersections where the truck had stopped, allowing a build-up of the sulphur to occur."
