ENVIRONMENT officials say the combined efforts of emergency crews and chemical experts to remove a toxic spill from the A1 prevented any damage to soil and water supplies.
Police, firefighters and specialist contractors worked round the clock to clear tonnes of hazardous powdered vanadium waste after a lorry shed its load on to the central reservation on Wednesday.
The clean-up was overseen by experts from the Envir
onment Agency, who were concerned the chemical could contaminate the ground or find its way into the nearby River Nene.
But after the road was re-opened following an 18-hour operation yesterday morning, officials have declared the area has emerged totally unscathed from the spillage.
Environment Agency spokeswoman Catherine Burbage said: "From our point of view it has been sorted out, cleaned up and there has been no environmental damage.
"Somebody went down to the site on Wednesday evening to oversee the work of specialist contractors who were cleaning up the spillage. But we left once the contractors had completed their work because we were happy that there was no further risk in environmental concerns."
The chemical experts were finished at the scene of the incident near the Water Newton turn on the northbound A1 at about 5am yesterday.
The full article contains 214 words and appears in Peterborough ET newspaper.
