BY PEPPER FISHER
PORT ANGELES — We have an update on the cleanup effort at Indian Creek following the July 18 tanker truck spill west of Port Angeles.
We know that the truck was removed the following morning and that crews from multiple agencies had booms in place to block and collect as much of the nearly 3,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel that spilled from the truck and its tanks as possible.
We spoke with Jessica Kulaas from the State Department of Ecology Thursday to see how the cleanup effort is going.
“We still have crews on the ground, working on cleanup and recovery. We estimate probably another week, week and a half to go. But that doesn’t mean that we’re done. When the emergency phase of the response is done, it will transition to restoration. So we’re in it for the long haul.”
Kulaas said the truck spilled about 2,800 gallons of gas and 172 gallons of diesel into Indian Creek.
“And gasoline is a lighter compound, so it tends to evaporate. And we’re still determining the recovery numbers. We don’t have that yet, but as we get that we’ll release that information. But the diesel, like, there’s some areas of the creek where it bends and twists and there’s log jams and debris, and that’s where some of the fuel has collected. And so, we have crews actively working to collect and recover that fuel.”
Indian Creek is a tributary of the Elwha River, the City of Port Angeles’ primary source of drinking water. City officials confirmed that no fuel reached the reservoir, but we wanted to know how much of the fuel reached the river. Kulaas said it is believed that some of the fuel did reach the river and flowed out into the strait. She said they are not detecting any fuel in or around the river at this time.
(Dept. of Ecology photo)