LIVERMORE – Selectpeople voted to buy an eye wash station and make provisions for water at the transfer station after a supervisor brought her concerns to the board about an unidentified powdered-substance burning the inside of an employee’s nose, throat and mouth.

“We had an accident last Tuesday at the transfer station,” Supervisor Juanita Jordan-Bryant told the board.

A white substance was brought in, and no one knew what the substance was because the truck it was in drove off, she said.

There is no running water at the station, located off Route 4, and no place for workers to wash their eyes, hands or body if some hazardous chemical gets on them, she said. There is also no designated place to isolate unknown materials.

“I do think we need to do something,” she said.

The material burned the employee’s nose, down through the throat and moved into the mouth, peeling some skin inside the mouth area, she said. The employee declined to go to the hospital for treatment, she said.

Jordan-Bryant said she called an emergency meeting of staff Saturday to discuss rules she set in place. She said selectpersons could take those rules to the town’s Solid Waste Committee for approval if they want but they are in place now.

The next time something like this happens, she said, the transfer station will be closed and the employee would be sent home to remove contaminated clothing and get washed up. The material would be isolated.

Jordan-Bryant also told the board there is no set hazardous material plan and that should be addressed.

The transfer station employee was exposed, she said, and people bringing items to the station could have been exposed as well.

The Solid Waste Committee oversees the transfer and recycling station. It has been meeting once a year.

Jordan-Bryant also requested her own mailbox to make sure she receives correspondence and asked about a raise she thought she would get after she earned a course certificate.

Selectpersons said they would review the budget to see what could be done.

Selectperson Wayne Timberlake asked if an eye wash station could be put at the transfer station. A station would cost about $200.

If the courses the Maine Department of Environmental Protection are recommending are only voluntarily, Jordan-Bryant said she probably won’t take as many.

“I think we should be paying time and mileage to take them, and we’ll continue to do that,” Selectperson John Wakefield said, after the board learned that is what is happening now.

Chairwoman Grace Jacques told Jordan-Bryant the board would see what it could do to correct what’s not working.

After an executive session with Animal Control Officer Wayne Atwood, where an occasional raised voice could be heard coming from behind closed doors, selectpersons had more to say about the transfer station when it was time for appointments.

The Solid Waste Committee is up for reappointment as well as Atwood.

“She’s begging for help, and she’s not getting it,” Selectperson Tom Berry said.

Wakefield said he’s not a committee person and suggested selectpersons take over supervisory capacity of the station and have Jordan-Bryant report to them.

“I’d rather have a labor inspection and get deficiencies corrected,” Wakefield said.

The board agreed to review ordinances to see if selectpersons could take a supervisory role and still appoint a committee or not.

No action was taken on reappointments by 8:30 p.m.