State officials say a tanker truck’s rollover on the Dalton Highway last month, spilling nearly 2,200 gallons of diesel fuel, has affected nearly 15,000 square feet of tundra and a buried stretch of the trans-Alaska pipeline system. In a Friday statement, the state Department of Environmental Conservation says effects of the Eggor Enterprises truck crash, on the evening of Feb. 11 near Mile 309.5 of the Dalton, have spread to some 14,389 square feet of state-owned land. While North Slope Borough Police Department officers received no reports of injuries, DEC reports that the trailer’s rear compartment split open in the crash, leading to the large-scale spill. “The spill impacted both the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and the (Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities) right of ways,” DEC officials wrote. “Moose, caribou muskox and ptarmigan are commonly found in the region of the spill but no (effects) to wildlife have been reported.” In addition to the removal of 378 cubic yards of contaminated snow which contained about 980 gallons of the spilled fuel, DEC officials say earth from the crash site is also being recovered for disposal. Work is in progress to address the spill’s effects on underground elements of the pipeline. “A total of 680 cubic yards of contaminated soil has been removed from the spill site and transported to the (Alaska Interstate Construction) facility in Deadhorse, where it will be incinerated later this summer,” officials wrote. “(DEC) is working with Colville and Alyeska to develop plans for removing the remaining contamination that has impacted the buried TAPS pipeline.” DEC will monitor future plans to remove additional contaminated soil, as well as backfilling material which covered the pipeline in the area of the spill.
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