A chemical leak forced a section of Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County to be shut down for several hours Tuesday which resulted in a major traffic jam for area roads and four state troopers being exposed to the material.

State police at Frackville said the incident began about noon when a team of troopers were performing truck inspections along the southbound lanes at a weigh station in Delano Township, just south of the McAdoo-Tamaqua exit.A FedEx double trailer pulled into the station and the driver alerted the team of inspectors that something was leaking from the rear trailer.When the team went to the trailer they observed the leaking liquid and a hazardous material placard. The troopers retreated to a safe distance but did suffer some exposure.The material leaking was determined to be phosphoric acid, which is a corrosive. It is considered to be a low hazard material and can cause eye, skin and respiratory irritation.Troopers said the truck was carrying a tote with about 2,680 pounds of the phosphoric acid. It was further determined that most of the substance had leaked out of the tote.Troopers from the Frackville and Hazleton barracks then closed down the southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted off the interstate at the McAdoo-Tamaqua exit onto SR309 south to the Hometown intersection in Rush Township, then rerouted onto SR54 to Mahanoy City where the traffic went back onto I81 south.The diversion of the traffic into Rush Township caused a major traffic back up on 309. Township police, assisted by area fire police, had to direct traffic through the busy Hometown intersection for at least two hours before the southbound lanes of I-81 were reopened.The Commercial Motor Vehicle Enforcement team were identified as Trooper Joseph Delash and team members Kelly Chapman, supervisor, Jason Richter and Jim Seibert. All were checked at the scene by responding EMS units personnel. They were later taken to the Schuylkill Medical Center-S. Jackson St., Pottsville, where they were further checked and then released.According to the state police report the shutdown of the southbound lanes lasted three hours. The lanes were reopened when officials on the scene from the state Department of Environmental Protection, and a hazardous material cleanup company determined it would be safe for traffic to resume traveling by the weigh station. The cleanup was completed by 5:30 p.m., troopers said.The Schuylkill County Emergency Management Agency set up a mobile command post at the scene. Numerous ambulances, fire apparatus and fire police were called out for the emergency including volunteers from the Ryan Township and Delano fire companies and the Ryan Township EMS unit.Air monitoring was performed at the scene by members of the Citizens Fire Company of Tamaqua, troopers said.