No adverse impacts after fuel spill near Quincy

QUINCY — There were no “adverse environmental impacts” after a fuel tanker overturned on state Route 28 on March 6 and almost 2,000 gallons of gasoline was spilled into a roadside ditch, according to state regulators.

Washington State Patrol spokesman Darren Wright said about 9:30 a.m. a 49-year-old man from Moses Lake was driving a fuel tanker west on state Route 28 near Quincy when the rear tank trailer rolled over and came to a rest on its side in a ditch.

Fuel leaked out of the tanker, causing SR-28 to be closed until 9:30 p.m. Sunday night as crews worked to clean up the fuel spill. The unidentified driver was not injured and Wright said the incident is still under investigation. A citation is expected.

Brook Beeler, of Washington Department of Ecology’s Eastern Regional Offices, said the trailer was carrying about 4,700 gallons of gasoline. Officials were concerned all of the 4,700 gallons of fuel would leak out of the overturned tanker and go into the ditch, so they quickly responded to the scene. She said the current estimate of fuel that poured into the ditch is about 1,900 gallons, with the number expected to change.

“Fortunately they (crews) contained all that fuel into that roadside ditch and burned it up so it didn’t spread into any surface waters or irrigation canals,” Beeler explained. “And part of the job of clean up is to completely pull out any contaminated soil and replace it with clean fill. So being on top of it is really beneficial and good news in the long run.”

The remaining fuel that was left in the overturned tanker was pumped into another tanker, Beeler said.