Contractors awaiting soil test results
A vacuum hose pulls water from Minnie Creek during the cleanup process.
CHENEY - State and local officials are continuing the clean up of a diesel fuel leak that reached Minnie Creek on July 20.
The leak was traced to an underground storage tank and vault at the Chevron gas station, 2302 First St., last week.
The state Department of Ecology, Cheney Public Works and GrayMar Environmental Services are still working to clean the area in and around Minnie Creek.
The effort is now focused on changing the absorbent material used to slow the spread of contaminants along the creek and skimming off any residual fuel.
Contractors are awaiting the results of soil tests around Minnie Creek to determine the extent of the spill.
Minnie Creek is in the Latah Creek drainage system.
The contamination was reported July 19 after being discovered in the creek near Presnell Mobile Home Park, 2225 First St.
John Calcaterra, supervising manager of the Chevron, said that Patrick Brown, the lead spill responder, told him on the night of Thursday the 20th, that there was a leak in one of the diesel tanks.
"So I shut off the turbine that pumps the fuel out of the tank, effectively shutting it down. There are many failsafe mechanisms in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening, so Thursday night I was kind of skeptical but I shut everything down anyway," Calcaterra said.
According to Calcaterra, Fire Chief Tom Jenkins came by on Friday morning to tell him that this was a serious leak.
"We do have the only source of red diesel in the city, so we knew it was coming from our facility. We had all the hazmat out here, and the first thing we decided to do after shutting the tank down was to drain it," Calcaterra said.
However, Calcaterra said that they couldn't get a company out to Cheney to pump out the diesel and store it soon enough.
"So, we decided to sell it at a reduced cost to encourage people to come by and drain the tank. Thanks to our local farmers we were able to completely empty the tank," Calcaterra said.
"I do want to thank all the farmers for coming to our rescue. Everyone in the city, from Chief Jenkins to Todd Ableman, was incredibly helpful and I thank all of them," Calcaterra said.
According to Calcaterra, it appears that the problem may have been caused by overfill. The sensors inside the tank itself would not pick up an overfill problem, Calcaterra said, so that is being considered as an explanation.
"We're still in the process of investigating the cause. You know, we live here in Cheney; we want to resolve this as much as anybody else does," Calcaterra said.
Calcaterra went on to say that, if there had been an ongoing leak in the tank, which still does not appear to be compromised, there would have been clear financial implication; a cost to the company that would have been noticed.
The source of the contamination was initially unknown, but traced to the Chevron gas station.
GrayMar was contracted to remove the fuel from the culvert, which leads to the creek, Ty Keltner of the Department of Ecology said.
Lucas is a former Cheney Free Press managing editor. He is a nationally published author who contributes regularly to several publications across the country.
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