Joe Veltri, left, and Brad Johnson, both from Environmental Specialists, Inc. of Youngstown, clean-up spilled paint from the surface of N. Meridian Rd. after a truck lost it's load of paint along the roadway Tuesday morning...by R. Michael Semple

AUSTINTOWN — Several agencies spent Tuesday morning and afternoon cleaning up a mess after nearly 1,000 gallons of yellow and white paint fell off a truck.

Austintown fire Chief Andy Frost said his crew, along with the Mahoning County Emergency Management Association, HAZMAT Association and Environmental Services spent seven hours cleaning up a section of North Meridian Road.

Frost said his department got the call around 8 a.m. when a flatbed truck stopped abruptly, causing a few drums of the nontoxic, latex paint it was carrying to the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office to fall off. The yellow paint splashed up onto the side of a nearby vehicle and all over the road.

Frost said the first step in cleanup was ensuring that paint did not enter into a sewer catch basin.

He said the paint is relatively harmless and would not have caused a major problem.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency did not find any trace of paint in the water supply and cleared the scene.

Frost said crews used a vacuum system to suck up the majority of the paint, along with absorbent clay granules. Paint that had started to dry was scraped up by crews, and sand was put down. Frost said there is a protocol for cleaning up hazardous materials and everything was disposed of properly.

lnickel@tribtoday.com