Mess left in wake of 6,380-gallon gas spill

By Jennifer McBride / Leader Staff

FINLEY POINT — While Highway 35 has been repaved and is open for traffic two weeks after a tanker dumped 6,380 gallons of gasoline near Finley Point, officials are still cleaning up the site.

Cedar Creek Engineering, the environmental firm handling site clean-up, removed approximately 1,413 tons of contaminated soil from depths of up to 21 feet last week. A report released April 9 stated that the soil removal had taken care of 1,539 gallons of gasoline, leaving approximately 4,841 gallons of fuel still unaccounted for.

Of the three wells the Lake County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) reports have been drilled at the site, Carey Cooley, information officer for OEM, said that two have tested positive for gasoline vapors. One of those wells is still testing positive after clean-up, so Cooley said they would still be pumping absorbent into the site. Cooley said the OEM will continue drilling wells until they've pinpointed and cleaned up the areas most affected by the fuel spill.

"It's kind of a process of elimination, so to speak," she said.

Meanwhile, Cedar Creek is also preparing to engineer "a more long-term water treatment program" in two springs feeding into Flathead Lake, Cooley said. A photo ionization detector found gasoline hydrocarbon vapors in the two creeks, which are located approximately 510 feet northwest of the spill site. The collection and carbon-filtration system set up several days after the accident has captured "virtually 100 percent of the contaminated spring flow," the Cedar Creek report states.

Test wells drilled nine to 12 feet into the lake bed have also come up clean. Because the two filtration tanks, which are currently responsible for straining 100,000 gallons of water per day, are nearing the end of their normal lifespan anyway, Cooley said Cedar Creek is planning to install a more long-term water filtration-system.

"We're definitely thinking long-term since there's been no change [despite clean-up measures]," she said. "They're making sure nothing creeps toward the lake." Daily tests on the local water systems have showed no hydrocarbons in the local well, which feeds 17 houses near the feed site.

While Cooley refrained to speculate on how long "long-term" would be, she did say that the OEM hoped the new wells would locate the source of the vapors.

In the meantime, vapors have caused problems elsewhere. One home was evacuated April 9 after a leaking seal around a sewer pipe sent vapors flowing into a Finley Point basement. Cooley reported that the local couple smelled gasoline, called OEM and have been since residing at a neighbor's house.

Cooley said OEM installed a seal on the sewer connection and dug vapor vents in the couple's yard. They're also installing a monitoring system which can warn the residents of hazards.

OEM has also been monitoring the potential fire danger daily. Right now, Cooley explained, there aren't enough vapors to cause a problem.

"If there ever was a danger, they'd evacuate the homeowners right away," she said.

In the wake of the spill, Department of Transportation director Jim Lynch has ordered his staff to investigate the possibility of closing Highway 35 to commercial truck traffic, according to DOT information officer Charity Watt Levis.

"It's actually been something that the residents along Highway 35 have wanted into the past," Levis said. "But any time something like this happens, the issue certainly bubbles to the top."

Levis said that its commonly assumed the state can't limit truck traffic on federally-funded highways, but the DOT won't be sure until the staff completes its investigation. According to the Daily Inter Lake, many truck drivers prefer Highway 35 to Highway 93. Even though the speed limit is lower, the road is also flatter and more fuel-efficient. Spook Spang, executive vice president of the Montana Motor Carriers Association, told the Inter Lake that truckers would fight any DOT restrictions.