United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 responded to a fuel tanker truck crash, involving 10,000 gallons diesel fuel, 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.
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.
Monday, July 10, 2006:
Several trees that had been badly burned, and that were in the area of petroleum contaminated soil (PCS) were felled by an Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) crew. ODOT indicated that the affected property owner (Swinford) could keep the felled timber for personal use, but could not resell them for profit because the trees were on ODOT right of way. During the felling, traffic was shut down on Highway 38 and personnel were evacuated from the floodplain area and the vicinity of the felling crew. The trees generally fell where intended, but one tree on the Swinford property was damaged.
UC discussed removal action levels for the excavations, and decided that PCS needed to be removed until remaining soil had no detectable petroleum, or as little remained as was achievable at the site.
At approximately 0930, the property owners, Kerry and Kim Swinford arrive on scene and express concern, frustration, and unhappiness that their property is being damaged, that they are not being included in the planning process, and that formal access had not been arranged. The property owners me with Unified Command to clear up these issues. As a note, OSC Heister and Bob Matson of Cowlitz Clean Sweep (CCS) did meet with the owners on Sunday.
START and ODEQ constructed two measurement grids, one for the south excavation, and one for the north excavation. The two grids were not tied together at this time because there is too much vertical separation and no common reference point. The grids were intended to document sample and screening locations in the excavations.
CCS assigned a second person to their environmental sampling unit. After observing the sampler during the morning, ODEQ and START notified CCS that the new sampler is not qualified to act independently as an environmental sampler. The sampler had no experience in sampling methodology or instrument operation.
CCS jetted out the culvert underneath Highway 38 to remove residual fuel. The water and fuel was captured by a vacuum truck. Of the 400 gallons captured, an estimated 2%, or 8 gallons was fuel.
During the afternoon, Test America laboratory was contacted. The laboratory did receive the samples from yesterday, but won’t be able to turn them around until tomorrow afternoon. UC reviewed other options for rapid analytical turn around, including Hapsite, mobile laboratory, headspace screening, and immunoassay analysis. Eventually, immunoassay is chosen based on turn around time (approximately 3 hours per sample batch), ease of shipping (Hapsite chemicals have significant restrictions), and cost. The immunoassay will screen low enough for UC clearance decision needs and will be correlated with at least 10% laboratory confirmation samples.
CCS crews worked primarily at excavating the north side of Highway 38. Thirty-seven truckloads (10 to 12 cubic yards each) were removed and stockpiled at a staging area near mile post 11. Prior to stockpiling soil, background soil samples were collected, and a containment berm and plastic sheeting were placed on the ground surface to protect the staging area from contamination. Test pits and screening instruments were used to delineate the extent of contamination during excavation. Maximum observed photo-ionization detector (PID) readings were 2,000 ppm and flame-ionization detector readings were 50 ppm. Clearance samples were collected from the west end of the excavation on the north side of the road and sent to the laboratory for rapid analysis.
At the excavation on the south side of Highway 38, CCS worked on salvaging the larger boulders and timbers, and built a bench (platform) for the excavator to sit on to allow it reach the top of the embankment. Some cleanup of embankment material occurred, and some PCS on the floodplain was removed. CCS also cleaned up along the sides of Highway 38 where PCS was easily accessible.
Sketches of the extent of excavation were drawn by START.
Some safety concerns were noted. Excavation work on the south side of Highway 38 threatened to undermine the embankment for Highway 38. Further excavation halted until slope stability can be evaluated by an ODOT highway engineer. On the north side of the excavation, water began accumulating in the excavation. Corrugated pipe and 3-inch minus rock were placed in the bottom of the excavation to control drainage and prevent slumping of the pit walls. Finally, some site workers entered the excavation to collect and test soil. The excavation is deep and is not shored. UC directed that no one should be entering the excavation.
CCS collected surface water samples today without START oversight.
START will order diesel low range immunoassay kits tomorrow morning to be shipped for arrival in Reedsport on Wednesday, July 12, 2006. START member Nuchims will fly in tomorrow night.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006:
In order to provide a closer location for assay analysis to the site, EPA and START relocate the CP to the Scottsburg Rural Fire Department (SRFD) parking lot. Shore power (120 VAC) is available and satellite phone service is good.
During the morning, START inspected the PCS stockpile at mile post 11. START monitored the breathing zone around the stockpiles with the TVA-1000 and did not detect any vapors past 10 feet from the edge of the stockpile. Underneath the plastic covering, vapors at 2,500 ppm were detected in soil with the PID.
CCS called out utilities locators to verify the location of buried telephone lines and to determine whether or not there is a buried high voltage electric line. CCS plans to aggressively remove contamination today on the north side of Highway 38, and construct a “shoo fly” lane to allow excavation to proceed on the south side tomorrow. Traffic needs to be kept away from the south bound lane while the south side of the highway is excavated. CCS removed an 8-foot wide strip of the westbound lane of Highway 38 along the length of the north excavation, and included this area within the north excavation.
ODEQ certified the west side of the north excavation as clean as achievable and authorized the west side to be backfilled with 15-inch minus rock. The clearance was based on CCS mini-Rae monitoring; mini-Rae readings were recorded by Randall Boese. CCS also collected confirmation samples for laboratory analysis, but these samples were not part of the clearance decision because will not be available for at least a day. The far and side wall were non-detect with screening instruments. Elevated readings were detected in soil in the wall along the highway. However, ODEQ determined that it was not feasible to remove this soil without risk to the highway.
CCS also dug a test pit to bedrock on the floodplain between the base of Highway 38 and the river. Bedrock was approximately 12 feet below the floodplain ground surface.
START accompanied CCS on surface water sampling. Surface water sampling proceeded faster and more efficiently than on July 9, 2006. START assisted CCS with locating surface water sampling points with CCS’s GPS unit.
OSC Heister met with a resident (Swanson) two properties downstream from the Swinford residence. The resident requested beach sediment sampling because a sheen was observed on the beach. OSC Heister agreed to the request and plans to have a sample collected by START tomorrow and analyzed with assay test.
START relocated the CP back to Scottsburg Park for the night to take advantage of overnight security guard services.
Twelve truck loads of PCS were excavated and transported to the stockpile today.
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