Date: Fri 23-Feb-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Trudeau-oil-spill-environment

Full Text:

with cut: Brakeless Oil Tank Truck Creates Environmental Emergency

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Work crews cleaned up an oily mess this week on the grounds of Fairfield Hills

Hospital where a driverless, brakeless oil tanker truck last Saturday spilled

hundreds of gallons of home heating fuel onto the ground after an accident.

American Environmental Technologies, a Bethel hazardous waste cleanup firm,

supervised workmen who lifted soil contaminated with heating fuel into large

dump trucks for eventual disposal. Clean soil will be brought to the spill

site to replace the soil which has been removed.

The comtaminated soil will be purged of its petroleum comtamination in special

incinerators that sterilize it.

Besides the soil contamination problems caused by the accident, the mishap

resulted in seven motor vehicle violations being lodged by police against its

driver and the firm he works for.

Police said Ronald Cisero, 38, of Hitfield Road was driving the tanker truck,

which is owned by Trudeau Oil Company of 49 South Main Street, when the

accident occurred.

Cisero was driving the tanker northbound on Nunnawauk Road, where the road

sharply downward near its easterly intersection with Mile Hill Road, when the

truck's brakes failed. The steep slope is approximately 1,000 feet long.

After the brakes failed, Cisero jumped out of the tanker truck, receiving

abrasions and contusions when he landed on the ground, police said.

The truck then rolled into the intersection and went across it, striking an

embankment, police said. The impact caused heavy damage to the truck's front

end and damaged an oil valve on the vehicle, causing several hundred gallons

of home heating fuel to leak out onto the ground, onto snow, and into the

roadway, police said.

When the oil first leaked out of the tanker, snow in the area acted as a

sponge, absorbing the dark red No. 2 home heating fuel, according to Police

Sgt Henry Stormer, a deputy fire marshal.

The oil truck came to rest in front of an old red barn on the property of

Fairfield Hills, the site of a former state psychiatric institution.

The spill came in the vicinity of the Pootatuck Aquifer, the major underground

water source which serves the Fairfield Hills property, Garner Correctional

Institution, Nunnawauk Meadows, and the 1,000 customers of United Water, the

privately-owned public utility which serves Newtown.

Rapid action to contain and clean up the spill prevented any apparent

pollution damage to the aquifer.

The Fairfield Hills Hospital Volunteer Fire Company, the Sandy Hook Volunteer

Fire and Rescue Company, and the United Fire Company of Botsford went to the

scene of the crash to start cleanup operations. The Hazardous Materials Spill

Unit of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) went to the

accident to assess the problem.

American Environmental Technologies of Bethel, a company that specializes in

cleaning up oil spills and chemical spills, came to the site to clean up the

oily, stinking mess. AET was at the scene at least four days cleaning up the

spill.

Police closed down sections of Mile Hill Road and Nunnawauk Road for more than

eight hours Sunday to facilitate cleanup work, Sgt Stormer said.

Sgt Stormer and Fire Marshal George Lockwood agreed that had there been

traffic on Mile Hill Road when the runaway oil tanker came barreling through

the intersection, there could have been a real tragedy.

Police charged Cisero with three motor vehicle violations: operating an

unregistered motor vehicle; misuse of marker plates; and operating a

commercial vehicle without a commercial driver's license.

Police charged Trudeau Oil Company with four violations: allowing the

operation of a motor vehicle without a tax identification number; allowing the

operation of an oil tanker without an inspection by the fire marshal; failure

to post the oil company's name and place of business on the sides of the

tanker truck; and operating a vehicle with defective brakes.

Cisero and the oil company are scheduled to appear in Danbury Superior Court

on March 4 to face the charges.

Sgt Stormer estimated the cleanup work to cost at least $25,000.