The residue from an overturned oil tanker last December will be cleaned up by the end of this week, winter weather permitting.
James Martin, a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Services, said this week that the contractor hired by the owner of the oil truck expects to wrap up operations at the site on Route 28 near Sanborn Road some time this week. With snow anticipated Tuesday, he was keeping his fingers crossed.
A tractor-trailer rolled over in the area Wednesday, Dec. 14. The truck, owned by P&N Transportation of Haverhill, New Hampshire, overturned at about 5:30 a.m.
The truck carried both diesel and gasoline. Crews on the scene used foam to suppress vapors. At the time, Fire Capt. Jim Roger noted that the cold acted as a “natural barrier” to contain the spill.
The accident caused Mammoth Road, between Page and Sanborn roads, to be closed to traffic for several hours. The initial cleanup took about eight hours.
Martin said P&N Transportation contracted with a company called NRC to finish the cleanup.
The initial estimate for the spill was 3,000 gallons of diesel. But because the tractor-trailer truck was compartmentalized and held both diesel fuel and gasoline, the impact from the crash caused both to spill. “We originally thought only one section was damaged,” he said. The revised estimate was 11,000 gallons of diesel and gasoline.
Martin said to date 2,500 tons of impacted soil have been removed from the site and replaced with uncontaminated soil. “On a daily basis, they are removing soil and backfilling it,” he said.
In addition, he said, “We have been able to recover approximately 4,000 gallons of fuel product from the surface water. It has been skimmed off the top.”
The process has taken a while in part because of the size of the spill and in part because of the coordination required among agencies. Martin said there has been coordination between the New Hampshire DES, Londonderry Police and Londonderry Fire to provide “safe and secure work zones.”
“We appreciate everyone’s cooperation,” he said.
“It was a large spill for New Hampshire,” Martin said. “It is not a frequent occurrence.”
P&N Transportation is bearing the responsibility and the cost of the cleanup, Martin said. There may be some “cost recovery” on the local level due to increased police and fire presence, he said.