United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 responded to a fuel tanker truck crash in Scottsburg, Douglas County, Oregon. The truck was owned and operated by Dedicated Fuels, Inc.. The crash occurred on Highway 38 while the truck was traveling westbound near mile marker 17, just east of Scottsburg, on Saturday, 7/8/06, at 1400 hours. The truck consisted of a primary 6,000 gallon tank mounted on a single-chassis truck with a secondary 4,000 gallon “pup” trailer. The truck and primary tank plunged off the highway and fell down the embankment where it was stopped by several trees. The secondary “pup” trailer crashed to a stop on the roadway and burned intensely. Local fire personnel responded, and put the fire out using fire fighting foam.
At the crash location, Highway 38 is built on an elevated roadbed along a hillside on the north side of the Umpqua River. The road embankment drops about 15 to 20 feet to a small floodplain, which extends approximately 100 feet to the River. The river bank descends approximately 10 more feet to the level of the river. A culvert runs beneath Highway 38 directly under the crash location and empties into a basin at the bottom of the Highway 38 embankment. A second culvert in the basin directs water towards the river. Diesel fuel was entering the Umpqua River adjacent to the spill site.
The EPA OSC formed a Unified Command with the Oregon DEQ State OSC and the responsible party's designee.
US Department of Interior and Department of Commerce, NOAA Fisheries were provided notification on 7/8/06, as were the Cow Creek and Coquille Tribes. The State Historic Preservation Office was notified on 7/10/06.
Saturday, July 8, 2006:
At approximately 1600 hours, OSC Dan Heister was notified by the Phone Duty Officer of the incident and requested to respond.
At approximately 2015 hours, OSC Heister arrived on site. EPA START contractor arrived at approximately 2130 hours. Heister met with Oregon DEQ SOSC Wes Gebb. Hard boom and sorbent boom had been deployed in the river by the RP's contractor, Cowlitz Clean Sweep (CCS). CCS agreed to collect a fuel product sample from the tanker truck primary tank during the night when it is safe to do so.
Sunday, July 9, 2006:
OSC Heister and START proceeded to the site at 0545 hours and met with SOSC Gebb, Oregon DEQ Geoff Brown, and CCS contractor. An Incident Command (IC) meeting was scheduled for 0900; some excavation around the culvert was planned for the meantime along with sampling of water from the culvert by START. The water discharging from the culvert had a fuel odor. Reportedly, 1,700 gallons of fuel was recovered from the primary tank truck during night operations. No fuel was recovered from the pup trailer.
During the 0900 meeting, the IC decided to excavate under the roadway to remove fuel contaminated soils, and to investigate fuel contamination between the culvert and the river to determine how fuel is migrating into the river. Several tasks were identified to reach that goal, including archaeological notifications, utility locates, soil stockpile location, and equipment and logistics. START was tasked with setting up the Command Post and communications, and with initiating sampling along with ODEQ Brown and CCS Steve Warner. A CCS shoreline assessment team reported no sign of sheen beyond the boom area downstream of the wreck location. Sheen was observed discharging from a limited area of the shoreline (approximately 30 feet wide) and is partially caught by sorbent boom and pads. Remaining sheen is being captured by a lower sorbent and hard boom combination with pads. CCS personnel are on site to change out pads and sorbent boom as needed.
START completed sampling with CCS. START collected a total of 6 water samples, including the culvert sample, a background river surface sample, a sample from the sheen discharge point into the river, a sample at the leading edge of the hard collection boom, a 100-yard downstream sample, and a 300 to 350-yard downstream sample. CCS collected samples from the same locations, and will courier the samples to Test America in Beaverton, Oregon tonight for rapid turn-around. The START samples will be submitted later for standard turn-around, or will be held for evidence.
The command post was set up and satellite telephone communications were established. No internet connection was possible, and cellular phones were unusable due to poor coverage.
START and USEPA departed the site for the day at 1800 hours.
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