On October 22, 2103, a Lewis Transport tanker truck carrying 8600 gallons of gasoline overturned in a field on the west side of US 25 at the intersection of Old Lexington Pike and Derby Drive in Kenton County, Kentucky. The Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection (KDEP) responded to the incident and requested assistance from EPA Region 4 due to the estimated 3500 gallons of released product. EPA OSC Art Smith was dispatched to investigate the incident on October 22 at 1400 hrs. EDT.
Lewis Transport Inc. is the Responsible Party and they hired Gra-Kat Environmental Services out of Shelbyville, KY to remediate the spill. The spill impacts area included a wet area that served as a drainage ditch which coursed under a Norfolk Southern Railroad line to a dry creek bed. Unrestricted flow would have made it to several tributaries leading to the Ohio River. Visual observations conducted on October 22 indicated that the actions taken in the aftermath of the spill were effective in containing the migration of product to the immediate area downgradient of the wreck location, and that no offsite impacts were identified.
On October 23, the OSC and KDEP responder inspected the spill site at daybreak. No off-site impacts were observed. Gra-Kat had begin construction of a perimeter interceptor trench built to contain any migration of gasoline product through the subsurface. In addition, a crude underflow dam was built to impound any floating gasoline product migrating overland away from the wreck site. The remaining soil remediation will be under the direction of the KDEP. OSC Smith demobilized from the site on October 23 at 1200 hrs. EDT.
On 10/25/2013, the OSC returned to the site when the Responsible Parties (RP) consultant (Potesta and Associates, Inc.) informed the OSC that free product had been observed in several temporary monitoring wells constructed downgradient of the wreck site. The OSC took photographs of gasoline floating on top of water in a bailer. The OSC and Potesta performed recon downstream in the surface water body, and established 3 monitoring points to evaluate for the presence of a sheen.
On 11/20/2013, EPA ERT member Powell supervised excavation of test pits near the wreck site in an attempt to find areas where gasoline product may have migrated. A recovery trench was completed in an area with strong gasoline odors and several thousand gallons of fluids were recovered. From this date forward until the end of the 2013 calendar year, no additional gasoline product was observed anywhere onsite and product recovery operations were suspended at that point.
Also on 11/20/2013 and 11/21/2013, a total of 1,038 tons of contaminated soils were excavated and disposed ofby the RP's contractor.
On 3/26/2014, Potesta submitted a "Summary of Stream Monitoring and Sampling" report. In that report, Potesta documented the presence of subsurface contaminant migration to an off-site location as revelaed through through groundwater sampling conducted in March 2014. However, there has been no evidence of an actual discharge to surface water at any of the established stream time mnitoring points from October 2013 through the date of this report. , Potesta reported that contact had been made with the Bullock Pen Water District concerning the discovery of trace amounts of BTEX compounds in off-site groundwater. However, these sample results do not indicate a significant threat to the drinking water utility. Based on this information, the OSC has determined that the oil removal action is complete at this time. The remainder of any onsite remediation or off-site monitoring will be under the direction of the KDEP.
