SPRINGDALE -- Firefighters stopped the flow of fuel in a storm drain before it reached Spring Creek on Tuesday evening.
An excavation company was removing fuel tanks from a property on Thompson Street directly across West Velma Avenue from Braum's, said Capt. Dustin Kelley, public information officer for the Springdale Fire Department.
Water in a pit had a sheen on it, and the water overflowed as the pit was being filled with dirt, said Katherine Benenati, spokeswoman with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality. That water then flowed into the storm drain, Kelley said.
Quad LLC owns the property where the tanks were removed two weeks ago, said Nick Southerland, general manager. The property was a fueling station until three weeks ago. The company intends to sell the property.
The Fire Department received a call about the incident about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, Kelley said. Firefighters used pads and booms to stop the fuel, which the excavation company later cleaned up. Fuel that escaped the property was cleaned and under control as of 10:45 p.m.
Firefighters tested the water flowing from a storm drain into Spring Creek near the intersection of Mill Street and Johnson Avenue, and they didn't find any petroleum products in the water, Kelley said.
Southerland said he's not sure how a sheen got on the water in the pit. MiD-America Environmental Solutions did the excavation work. That company also took soil samples from the locations where the tanks were, and the samples were tested in early July. No contaminants were found, he said.
Benenati said the data from the analysis of the samples is sent to the state agency. No action is needed if the total petroleum hydrocarbons is under 100 parts per million.
She said her agency stays in contact with the Springdale Fire Department and the tank owner during clean up and follows up with the tank owner afterward. Clean up is first priority in this type of situation, she said.
NW News on 07/23/2015