Cleanup continues at fuel spill site
Gasoline that spilled when a tanker truck overturned last week on Montana 35 near Finley Point has so far been kept out of Flathead Lake, according to Carey Cooley of the Lake County Office of Emergency Services.
The water in the lake is 2,000 feet from its high-water shoreline and no liquid gasoline has been found west of the highway, but as a precaution booms have been placed on the water should gasoline seep through the surrounding soil.
Gasoline vapors, however, have been found in two nearby springs, forcing crews to collect the spring water in cisterns and filter the vapors out before allowing the water to flow into the lake.
Measurements taken Tuesday indicate that the level of gasoline vapors collecting in the springs has stopped increasing, said Cooley. Trenches dug in the rock bed under the springs also failed to turn up any fuel, she added.
Officials plan to drill three monitoring wells °ª one at the spill site, one to the west and downhill of the spill site, and one to the northwest of the spill site between the highway and the water supply for nearby homes.
Channels in the deep rock bed surrounding the lake are making it difficult for cleanup crews to predict where gasoline or gasoline vapors may end up, said Cooley.
°°This has been a tough one, unlike most they see,°± she said. °°There°¯s just no way to anticipate anything, which is unusual for them.°±
Crews have removed contaminated soil containing about 1,000 gallons of gasoline, which still leaves more than 5,000 gallons of fuel unaccounted for, Cooley said.
By Tuesday morning, workers had finished excavating soil from the immediate spill site and were backfilling places where contaminated material had been removed. Authorities hope to begin repaving the dug-up portions of Montana 35 on Thursday and have both lanes of the highway open by the weekend.
Only one lane of the highway has been open since the April 2 crash, and a temporary traffic light is managing traffic flow.
According to the Montana Highway Patrol, the tanker truck was traveling northbound on Montana 35 near mile marker 5 when its trailer drifted off the right side of the road. The trailer pulled the rest of the truck into the ditch, where it overturned.
No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
Since then, specialists from the Lake County Office of Emergency Management, Tribal Disaster Emergency Services, Cedar Creek Engineering Inc., and Carolina Casualty Insurance Co. have been working around the clock to remove contaminated material, Cooley said.
°°We°¯re in it for the long haul,°± Cooley said. °°The longer we are in this, the more obvious it°¯s becoming a long-term project.°±
Only about 40 such fuel spills occur every year nationwide, Cooley said. The last significant fuel spill in Lake County was in 1992 near Yellow Bay.
Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com