PORT MATILDA -- Eight rail cars full of Bauxsol, with much more...

PORT MATILDA -- Eight rail cars full of Bauxsol, with much more to come, rolled into this small borough on Wednesday to begin a $1 million, summer-long test of a chemical fix for the massive environmental hazard at an Interstate 99 construction site at Skytop.

The cars of Bauxsol, an alkaline red powder produced from aluminum refining waste, were dropped off on a rail siding at the corner of Water Street and South High Street, next to the borough building, where unloading and hauling to Skytop is scheduled for today.

Plans are to use a big track hoe mounted atop the rail cars to put the 675 cubic yards of Bauxsol into trucks that will cycle back and forth for 10 hours between Port Matilda and the acid rock drainage site eight miles east.

It wasn't clear Wednesday what route the trucks would take, but the hauling could thicken traffic for commuters. No part of the I-99 corridor is near the rail cars, and the most direct route on public roads is U.S. Route 220 through Port Matilda and then U.S. Route 322 to Skytop. Today's operation was to begin at 10:30 a.m.