Published July 23, 2008 12:15 am - An ammonia leak at the Weis Markets milk plant Tuesday morning forced 150 employees to evacuate and remain out of the building for most of the morning.
Leak forces evacuation at Weis Markets headquarters
Ammonia seeps into company's milk plant
By Damian Gessel
The Daily Item
SUNBURY -- An ammonia leak at the Weis Markets milk plant Tuesday morning forced 150 employees to evacuate and remain out of the building for most of the morning.
Dozens of Weis workers stood in parking lots along South Second Street shortly after 9 o'clock. Fifteen minutes earlier, a valve leak in the milk plant case storage area had seeped ammonia fumes, said Weis spokesman Dennis Curtin.
Curtin said no one was injured.
As a precaution, Weis Markets evacuated employees from both the milk plant and the adjacent corporate offices, Curtin said, although he noted that ammonia was detected only in the milk plant.
Weis Markets sent its own hazardous materials team into the building, while emergency workers waited on standby outside.
Corporate office workers were allowed back into their offices before 11 a.m.
Curtin said he didn't believe any milk was damaged, but some bottles of spring water that were being filled at the time of the leak will be discarded.
n E-mail comments to dgessel@dailyitem.com.