Wednesday, July 22, 2015

400 gallons of big-rig oil spill shuts down Highway 223 in California




Highway 223 between Union Avenue and Fairfax Road has been closed since Monday afternoon due to a semi-truck spilling hundreds of gallons of oil on the roadway, officials said Tuesday.

It’s unclear when the road will re-open, California Highway Patrol spokesman Robert Rodriguez said Tuesday afternoon.

At about 3 p.m. Monday, the CHP received a call of a semi spilling oil and shut down the highway about a half hour later, he said.

The CHP Environmental Crimes Unit and the Kern County Environmental Health Division are investigating, he said.

The majority of the 300 to 400 gallons of oil that spilled ended up on the paved portion of the road, with a lesser amount spilling on the shoulder, said Environmental Health Director Donna Fenton. The spill occurred east and west of Adobe Road, Fenton said.

Clean-up is still underway, she said, but it doesn’t appear to have caused any environmental damage.

When more clean-up is done, the division will be in a better position to know if any road repairs or remediation are needed, Fenton said.

People who drove through the spilled oil may have a tough time getting it off their vehicle, she said. If investigators find out who spilled the oil, the person will be assessed fines, penalties and clean-up charges, Fenton said.

A reader who alerted The Californian to the incident but didn’t provide a full name said the mess at first looked like a water slick from recent rains but turned out to be “several inches of pure oil.”

“Driving a truck and pulling a horse trailer full of horses, (a) driver had to carefully creep through to the other side,” the reader said. “(The) truck, trailer, undercarriage and sides are covered with oil.”