Thousands of gallons of oil spilled onto Highway 41 near Gateway, Colorado, recently when a tanker truck crashed after allegedly speeding around a corner and losing control.
According to local television station KJCT, the tanker truck was carrying approximately 10,000 gallons of crude oil when the crash occurred just north of Gateway. The driver, 26-year-old Randy Curtis of Dove Creek, was reportedly taken to Saint Mary’s Hospital with minor injuries.
Initial estimates suggested that 75 percent of the oil being transported by the truck leaked out as a result of the crash, but that number has been lowered significantly, according to the news source. Still, Mike Page with the Grand Junction Fire Department told the news source that cleanup crews were dispatched to the scene in great numbers.
“We sent two crews up, hazmat crews, which is a full hazmat assignment,” Page said. “Three-fifths of our workforce is going to be on duty up here.”
The Telluride Daily Planet cites an official who said an unknown amount of the oil seeped into a creek that feeds into the Dolores River.
Typically, cleanup crews employ a variety of oil spill cleanup methods in these situations, and Impact Absorbents’ XSORB Oil Select Boom is able to absorb four times its weight.
