TEMPLE – A trailer carrying a load of solar batteries headed to the top of Mount Blue tipped into a ditch on a logging road, off Edes Brook Road, on Tuesday afternoon, spilling the batteries on the ground.

There was very little leakage and there was no environmental impact, Franklin County Emergency Management Director Tim Hardy said Wednesday. Maine Department of Environmental Protection was at the site Wednesday morning.

The heavy-duty utility truck pulling the 16- to 17- foot, dual-axle trailer stayed upright, he said.

The batteries are designed specifically for large-scale storage for electricity, Hardy said. They were being hauled up the logging road to a helicopter pad. They were destined to be flown to the summit of Mount Blue where a solar-powered state radio communications tower has been built.

The conditions of the logging road were wet and slippery about 4:30 p.m., Hardy said, which contributed to the trailer tipping over.

Temple fire Chief David True said the load shifted in the trailer.

Timberline Construction of Canton, Mass., which is building the tower, was hauling the load, Temple fire Chief David True said. The trailer was hauling 28 batteries that were each about 3-feet wide, 3-feet tall and 1-foot deep, he said. Four of them are bolted together to make one battery pack, he said.

True and Assistant Chief George Blodgett responded to the scene, and True said he had Hardy called in because it was hazardous materials. True didn’t know the name of the driver of the company’s truck, he said. Other Temple firefighters stood by at the Fire Station.

Franklin County sheriff’s Cpl. Kenneth Charles also went to the scene.

A DEP representative gave the company a list of places where the batteries can be disposed of, Hardy said. They cannot be reused, he said.

According to Timberline Construction’s website, the radio communications tower looks like a fire lookout tower and has a public viewing platform.

dperry@sunjournal.com