A truck rollover on the southern end of the Dalton Highway resulted in a fuel spill. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation reports that tractor portion of the rig remained upright, and the driver survived the Tuesday crash without serious injury.
DEC on-scene coordinator, Tom DeRuyter says responders have conducted preliminary work at the spill site north of the Yukon River crossing, near mile 59.
“They have removed the oil, or most of the oil, from the tanker, they up righted the tanker and got it removed from the highway,” he said.
DeRuyter reports that damaged portion of the tanker operated by Tena Trucking, was carrying 4,000 gallons of ultra low sulfur diesel, but it will take some work to determine how much fuel was released in the accident.
“The oil that was in the tanker and transferred to another truck is going up to Deadhorse,” DeRuyter said. “They’re going to meter that off, and then they’re going to meter whatever the residual was left in the tanker, and those 2 numbers minus, subtracted from what was originally put in the tanker, will give us a spill volume. I’m not expecting that for a couple of days.”
DeRuyter says contaminated snow, brush and underlying soil will have to be removed from the spill site. Driving conditions have been especially tricky along several section of the over 400 mile long Dalton Highway, with numerous travels advisories issued in recent days due to ice on the road.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
