Saturday, April 13, 2002
The truck left a fuel trail 3 or 4 feet wide for about 5 miles.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
WEST MIDDLESEX, Pa. -- Shenango Township officials said a Youngstown construction supply company will be getting a bill for the cleanup of diesel fuel that leaked from one of its delivery trucks.
Police Chief Ronald Preston said the ABC Supply Co. Inc. truck hauling roofing shingles and driven by Ray Merrell of Salt Springs Road began leaking fuel on East Liberty Street in Hubbard shortly after 8 a.m. Friday.
It left a trail 3 or 4 feet wide all the way along state Route 304 to the Pennsylvania line and then north along State Line Road and east on Habarka Road to a job site where it was to deliver shingles, Preston said.
He estimated the truck leaked between 80 and 100 gallons of diesel fuel over the 5-mile trip.
"It's a real mess. People have driven through it," Preston said late Friday morning.
The leak was in a cross-over line between the truck's two saddle tanks located below the cab and allowed the fuel to spill beneath the center of the truck so the driver never noticed it until he reached the Habarka Road location, Preston said.
About cleanup: Township firefighters and street department workers were called out to spread sand over the spill in the township, and Preston said ABC Supply will get a bill for the cost of the cleanup.
City of Hubbard police said the street and fire department spread sand over the fuel on Route 304, from the downtown to the city limits.
Ohio Department of Transportation spread sand in Hubbard Township to the Pennsylvania line.
Kirk Stitt, manager of ABC Supply's Meridian Road store, said he anticipates that the company will be billed.
He said the driver was able to contain the spill once he stopped but the spill kits carried on the truck couldn't do anything for the trail of diesel fuel left on the roads.
A second truck with more spill kits was sent to the Habarka Road job site as company officials initially thought the spill had occurred there. Its equipment was also insufficient to deal with the fuel on the roads, Stitt said.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency sent an inspector to look at the spill, Preston said.
No charges will be filed against the driver, he said.