Oil spill impact

By Rosa Duarte

Published: February 25, 2008

A local couple says dead animals are turning up on their property and that an oil spill is to blame.

On Valentine’s day, a tanker truck overturned on route 42 in Giles county spilling 7,100 gallons of kerosene and diesel fuel which then leaked into a local creek.

Crews were able to maintain the spill close to a mile downstream but have not been able to remove all the product from the water.

Property owner Creed Taylor says he’s found several animals dead and covered in oil, “This time of year hooded mergansers which are ducks, and to see them you know in normal circumstances diving in the water and flying around and cavorting and then to see them drifting down the creek belly up with their feet in the air covered with oil, is not something you really are prepared for or want to see.”

According to Allen Linkenhoker, Pollution Response Coordinator for DEQ, the majority of the fuel has been cleaned up and removed but it’s hard to say how long it will take to get the rest of the product out of the creek.  Linkenhoker adds there’s several wells and a spring in the area that will be monitored for at least a year and they’re currently waiting on an initial report and samples from the contractor who’s doing the cleanup.

As for the animals found dead on Taylor’s property, Linkenhoker says it’s up to the game warden to determine if they died as a result of the fuel spill.
“It really saddens me, I mean it’s a….place that I’ve grown up with and know well and to think that it can be so dramatically affected by one vehicle going in it…it’s really sad.”

Taylor and his wife are in the process of contacting the game warden about the animals. Linkenhoker says a good rain fall will help flush any of the remaining oil out so it can be cleaned up.