Hazardous Material 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. 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.
Whatcom Environmental 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. Spill response personnel were dispatched to the site and began skimming spilled product from pools of water created by construction of underflow weirs in the impacted drainage ditch.
Whatcom Environmental 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. Whatcom Environmental collected soil samples from the ditch to document the removal of all PCS.
Whatcom Environmental then 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 ensure 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.
Removal of petroleum contaminated soil from a drainage ditch along a state highway.