Hazardous Material Spill Response

State Highway Spill Response 

In the Fall of 2003, a tanker trailer containing approximately 3,000 gallons of diesel and gasoline overturned on a state highway in rural Whatcom County, Washington. Gasoline and diesel were released from the trailer into a drainage ditch on the west side of the highway. The gasoline and diesel flowed down the ditch and into a culvert that crossed beneath the road into a wetland. 

personnel responded to the release site at the request of the Client. Water with heavy sheens and floating product was observed in the ditch along the highway. Personnel from Western Refinery Services (WRS) were onsite skimming spilled product from pools of water created by construction of underflow weirs in the impacted drainage ditch.

Whatcom Environmental personnel documented petroleum contaminated soil (PCS) removal from the ditch along the west side of the highway. Approximately 30 tons of soil were excavated from the ditch and stored in covered roll-off boxes. WES personnel collected soil samples from the ditch to document the removal of all PCS.

Whatcom Environmental personnel collected water samples from five nearby drinking water wells to establish a background concentration for each well and installed three groundwater monitoring wells to help establish groundwater flow direction and monitor the groundwater for signs of contamination.  The wells are sampled quarterly in order to insure the shallow groundwater near the spill site remains uncontaminated.

All data collected from the site were integrated into a GIS for analysis and production of site maps.

Back   Whatcom Environmental also responded to a Hazardous Material Spill at a popular local ski area.