Some environmental clean-up took place this afternoon north of Quesnel after a fuel truck went off the road in the snowstorm last night.
John Andrushko is the Division Manager with Emcon Services in Quesnel…
“Yesterday in the snowstorm, it was definitely heavy snowfall at that time and limited visibility, and the driver of a southbound b-train tanker truck hauling gasoline, 55 thousand liters, lost visual contact with the road and went off road right, about 400 meters just north of Hush Lake rest area on Highway 97 north of Quesnel.”
Andrushko says the fuel spill was minimal as there was just a small leak in one of the top hatches…
“They did put some containment under it for the evening last night. It was very small though, it was a very small drip about once every 15 seconds, so they used containment rings and diaper cloths to absorb it for the evening.”
Andrushko says they then returned at eight o’clock this morning, yielding traffic for extraction of the gas into an out tanker…
“Quantum, who is doing the environmental cleanup for the transport company. The truck is laying on its side, it didn’t roll right over, it just laid on its side in the snow so they’ve got ladders to go on top of the tanks on each compartment, there are four different compartments. They have the tank grounded so there are no sparks, but they are cutting a hole into it and they put an aluminum sleeve into the tank and use the pumps, and then we have another B-train parked along side it on the Highway and we’re just floating the fuel straight into those tanks.”
Andrushko says no waterways were impacted by the spill.
Quantum Environmental, the Ministry of Environment, traffic control and Emcon Services are all involved in the operation.
There were minor traffic delays during this process and more are expected until possibly 6 o’clock tonight.