Trucking company footing the bill for fuel spill
Crews are still cleaning up Fountain Creek after a fuel tanker spilled 8,000 gallons of diesel and gasoline in Motor City.
While the streets are now clear, it’s Fountain Creek that will take the brunt of the damage.
The city and county won’t foot the bill for cleanup though, it’s in the hands of the trucking company that spilled the fuel.
“I heard somebody yelling that it’s coming,” Lloyd Harsha said.
Harsha was walking along Fountain Creek this morning, and found crews looking to clean up some 7,000 unaccounted for diesel and gasoline that spilled out of the tanker early Friday morning.
“They were right on it, prompt,” Harsha said.
Cleaning up the spill is no simple process, as crews are unsure of how far the spill has traveled.
“Well it’s a big situation, any time you’ve got hydrocarbons like that, that can get onto the ground, get into the environment or into the stormwater system,” said Colorado Springs Fire Department Chief Ted Collas.
Belfor Environmental has been hired to manage the cleanup by the trucking company. The Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the entire project to make sure the spill is cleaned up right.
Crews are focused now on getting the fuel out of Fountain Creek before it starts heading down the creek toward Pueblo.
“We have a homeless population that is very close to the creek where they camp,” Kathy Nelson with the Pueblo County Health Department said. “We have reached out to agencies such as Posada to inform them of the situation so that they can go and do education and warning systems.”
Many unknowns remain, like what the fuel could do to the ecosystem long term.
“And it’s going to be killing all the fish that’s down there,” Lloyd Harsha said.
Work along the creek has closed Hanson Trail head parking in Fountain.
It’s a cleanup that Harsha believes is far from over.
“There’s more in there,” Harsha said.
And bills that will keep racking up as cleanup progresses.
Officials are asking the public to not drink or go into Fountain Creek from Colorado Springs through Pueblo as they finish cleanup efforts.
