COLFAX, WA – Cleanup of a large fuel spill three miles south of Colfax continues. The Washington State Department of Ecology is estimating that 2,000 gallons of diesel and gasoline leaked out of a tanker trailer following a cat-caused collision in mid-January along US 195 near Prune Orchard Road.
“Per the latest update, contractors are maintaining the boom at the confluence of Spring Flat Creek and skimming what little fuel there is from the surface. There was no sheening observed in Spring Flat Creek, and still no impact to the South Palouse River,” the agency’s Ty Keltner tells KOZE News. “There is a mobile lab onsite taking soil samples to see how far under the road the contamination reaches. If the road needs to be removed to get to the contamination underneath, that will be a decision for DOT whether to take care of it now or when the road gets replaced. That will determine how long this cleanup will go.”
The highway is reduced to one lane in that area while work continues.
The truck, reportedly owned by Coleman Oil, was hauling 2,000 gallons of diesel and 4,000 gallons of gasoline in a baffled tank. Ecology’s Stephanie May previously said that responders were able to pump an estimated 4,000 gallons of mixed fuel out of the damaged tank, which left approximately 2,000 gallons which potentially spilled onto to the highway, soil shoulder, wet ditch, and Spring Flat Creek.
The Washington State Patrol reported that 31-year-old Joshua Blas of Reardon had been traveling southbound on State Route 195 near milepost 33 in a 2010 Kenworth towing a fuel tanker when he swerved to miss a cat on the highway at 8:50 p.m. on January 15th.
Blas lost control of his truck which caused the trailer to tip over. It was punctured and resulted in the spilling of gasoline and diesel. He was not injured.
