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Department of Ecology News Release - November 17, 2006
06-240
Contacts:
BELLEVUE, Wash., (Nov. 17, 2006) — Unified Command at Crystal Mountain today announced that site investigative efforts indicate a significant amount of the diesel fuel that leaked two weeks ago from a Puget Sound Energy back-up generator at Crystal Mountain has ended up in the soil under a utility corridor near the generation station, which serves the ski area in rural Pierce County.
Withstanding very difficult weather and site conditions, emergency cleanup crews from PSE, the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Washington Department of Health (DOH) and Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) have been working continuously since the initial report of the spill on Nov. 3 to explore all locations where the fuel may have migrated and to safely capture and remove the diesel.
According to Unified Command, “The site investigation indicates that a significant amount of diesel from the spill is immobilized in soil beneath and adjacent to the generation station and beneath the utility corridor. Initial estimates are that several thousands of gallons of diesel fuel are in the soil in these areas. Only small amounts of diesel fuel continue to seep out of the ground near Silver Creek.”
Diesel infiltrated the gravel bed of the access road as far as 300 yards north of the station. The road is on the west side of Crystal Mountain Boulevard and Silver Creek is on the opposite side of the Boulevard, 300 to 400 feet east of the access road.
Crews are now excavating the diesel-mixed soil from the utility corridor while they continue their site analysis and work to address any residual diesel that may have migrated closer to Silver Creek.
Drinking water wells located near the mouth of Silver Creek approximately 4 miles downstream of the spill location are regularly being sampled and tested for any evidence of diesel. To date, no diesel fuel has been detected by the labs in any of these drinking water well samples. PSE has been and will continue to provide local residents with drinking water while the wells are being tested.
Additional information can be found at the Ecology Web site – http://www.ecy.wa.gov – under the Spotlight section or by clicking here http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/spills/incidents/PSECrystalMountainSpill_110306/PSECrystalMountain_home.html.
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About Puget Sound Energy Washington state’s oldest and largest energy utility, with a 6,000-square-mile service territory stretching across 11 counties, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) serves more than 1 million electric customers and 700,000 natural gas customers. PSE meets the energy needs of its growing customer base through incremental, cost-effective energy conservation, low-cost procurement of sustainable energy resources, and far-sighted investment in the energy-delivery infrastructure. For more information, visit: www.pse.com.
Dept. of Ecology: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/spills/spills.html
U.S. EPA: http://www.epa.gov/Region10/
USFS: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/
Dept. of Health: http://www.doh.wa.gov/
TPCHD: http://www.tpchd.org/index.php
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
