Clean-up continues along Price River; EPA monitoring effort
About 4,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Price River and onto Highway 6 Thursday night when a fuel tanker truck overturned after hitting a bridge near the Carbonville Road on-ramp and the highway’s westbound lanes.
Local law enforcement officials were forced to close the highway going west out of Price, diverting traffic through a portion of the city from the West 100 off-ramp to Carbonville Road.
The out of town Maverick Tesoro Trucking driver was not injured, but the rollover left the tanker severely damaged.
The accident spurred officials to call out the Carbon County Sheriff’s Hazardous Materials Response Team.
“Hazmat technicians placed booms at multiple locations down stream. Price River Water Improvement District is aware of the situation as is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and would like everyone to know that the drinking water is safe,” according to a press statement released by Whitney Waterfall, a county emergency services specialist. “This incident took place below the water treatment plant, meaning that the spill is not affecting drinking water or agricultural water.”
Most of the affected water was diverted late Thursday night into the Carbon Canal.
Clean-up operations are being led by Envirocare, a contractor. Waterfall said the company reportedly collected “43 bags of crude” and removed them from the river in a 12-hour period.
Of the 4,000 gallons spilled, Waterfall said approximately “750-1,000 gallons made its way into the river before counter measures were deployed by emergency personnel.”
Clean-up is expected to be ongoing through Wednesday.
Oil containment booms were deployed in four locations down stream along the river.
“These booms skim the river and trap the oil that floats preventing it from going further down stream. Clean-up personnel physically stand in the river with a net and remove the gelatinous material. Once this effort has removed a large percentage of the contaminate, crews will walk the river and polish any areas that residue has remained,” Waterfall said.
The EPA is monitoring the cleanup and will decide when measures have sufficiently mitigated the spill.
Tanker crash spills 4,000 gallons of oil
A Maverick Tesoro oil truck sits on its side along Highway 6 near the Carbonville on-ramp. The driver crashed into a bridge and rolled over Thursday night.