A woman left about 50 grams of a potentially explosive acid at a hazardous waste collection, triggering road closures and concerns.
Shortly before 10 a.m., an unknown person dropped off a box of laboratory-grade chemicals at the Benton County event at the road department shop on Wiser Parkway, near Cottonwood Elementary school, said Shyanne Faulconer, a Benton County spokeswoman.
Employees from the contractor handling the event asked the woman to stick around as they checked the contents of the box.
"There is a list of materials that we can accept and a list of materials that we can't," Faulconer said. "Any chemicals that are brought in have to be reviewed by a chemist to make sure they're acceptable to take." What employees didn't expect to find was 50-gram container that held picric acid. Normally kept wet, it began to dry out and form crystals, said Lt. Tracy Baker, Benton County Fire District 1's public information officer.