Westbound Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon was closed for several hours Tuesday, after a multi-vehicle accident at about mile marker 123 in the canyon that led to the spill of about 3,000 gallons of gasoline from a tanker in the crash.
Westbound Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon was closed for several hours Tuesday, after a multi-vehicle accident at about mile marker 123 in the canyon that led to the spill of about 3,000 gallons of gasoline from a tanker in the crash.
Colorado Department of Transportation
Thanks to dilution, the Clifton Water District was unable to detect any contamination in the Colorado River from the estimated 2,000 gallons of gasoline that spilled from a tanker in Glenwood Canyon into the Colorado River last week as a result of a traffic accident.
Four commercial vehicles were involved in last Tuesday’s crash, in which an estimated 3,000 gallons spilled from a tanker and about two-thirds of that was believed to have made it into the river.
Clifton Water gets its water supply from the river and began sampling for contaminants in the river after being notified of the spill.
It also increased treatment plant production to increase water storage in its system and prepared to temporarily shut off its intake from the river later last week based on estimated river flow speeds and when any spilled gas was expected to pass by the area.
Despite no gas being detected, the district’s general manager, Ty Jones said the district shut down its intake as a precautionary measure for maybe 24 hours, and took advantage of the shutdown to do some maintenance on the plant.
He wasn’t surprised that no gasoline was detected.
“The river dilutes things so much that we didn’t think that we would probably see anything,” he said.
He said the district calculated that on the morning the spill occurred, the river was flowing at around 11,000 gallons per second.
“So with 2,000 gallons of contaminant 80 to 100 miles away, we didn’t think we would probably see anything but you never know,” he said.
“Everybody was just being cautious on that.”
Jeff Layman, town administrator for the town of Silt, which gets its water from the river closer to the spill site, said the town also was watching for and testing for gasoline but none was detected, presumably due to dilution.
“Our plant was actually shut down that day for some maintenance issues so we wouldn’t have gotten any in the plant anyway,” he said.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife last week said it had no indications of fish dying due to the spill.
Jones said the spill still was a good opportunity for people to work through implementing the emergency response system, which includes notification of water systems and in his district’s case, putting into action the plan it has developed.
He said the incident gives the district the chance to look at how it might fine-tune its response plan for the future.
“It’s unfortunate to have those things happen but if you can find something positive out of it that’s always a good thing,” he said.
