Date: Fri 05-Dec-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Hawley-fuel-oil-spill-DEP

Full Text:

Fuel Oil Spill At Hawley Will Require Expensive Clean-up

(with cut)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Workmen are cleaning up a fuel spill in which 1,020 gallons of #2 heating oil

leaked from a pressurized underground line at Hawley School on Church Hill

Road and contaminated soil on school grounds.

Dom Posca, supervisor of buildings and grounds for the public schools, said

Tuesday that workmen on November 22 drove metal stakes into the ground for

concrete forms being built to create a Dumpster pad for the school.

One of those stakes ruptured a two-inch diameter Fiberglas, pressurized

heating fuel line which was buried about 30 inches below ground level, causing

the line to spew fuel into the soil.

The fuel line is a "return line" which circulates heating fuel between a

furnace and a 10,000-gallon fuel storage tank buried outside at the school.

After school janitors noticed a strong odor of heating fuel after 7 am on

November 26, firefighters, the fire marshal, and the state Department of

Environmental Protection (DEP) were summoned to the scene to assess the

problem.

American Environmental Technologies, a Bethel hazardous waste clean-up

company, was working at the spill site this week, cleaning up the oily mess.

A large amount of contaminated soil will be trucked away for incineration,

said Fire Marshal George Lockwood. He termed it "a big spill."

Luckily, there are no domestic water wells in the area which could have become

contaminated by such a spill, he said.

Mike Capuano, a DEP spill inspector, said the clean-up aims to excavate the

contaminated soil before the heating fuel reaches and contaminates the

groundwater table or any surface waters. Soil borings will be used to check

extent of the contamination.

"It was an accident. It could have happened to anybody," Mr Posca said.

Acmat, Inc, the general contractor for the renovation and expansion project at

Hawley School, will be covering the expenses involved in the clean-up, Mr

Posca said. "It's not going to be a cheap project," he said. A damage estimate

was not available.

Fortunately, the heating fuel spill was discovered before any added fuel

leaked out of the line, he said. "It could have been worse," he added.

The fuel did not reach the stormwater catch basins along Church Hill Road

which lead to the Pootatuck River, Mr Posca said.

The fuel that leaked out of the line traveled downward into the ground and

also traveled laterally underground, he said. As it travels underground, the

fuel dissipates. The soil acts as a sponge in absorbing the spilled fuel, Mr

Posca said.

The leaking fuel contaminated the soil beneath a new sidewalk at the school,

Mr Posca said. Workers will soon know whether the leaking fuel found its way

beneath the new parking lot on the east side of the school, he added.

When fuel contaminates soil beneath paved areas, the pavement must be torn up,

the contaminated soil removed, and new pavement installed.

Mr Posca said he hopes clean-up work can be finished by Christmas. The longer

the fuel remains in the ground, the more difficult the contamination problem

becomes to resolve, he said.