There appears to be no end in sight for a cleanup effort in El Cajon almost two months after a fuel truck spilled about 8,600 gallons of gasoline at a busy intersection.
“We’re still removing contaminated soil,” said Robert Wise, on-scene coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Wise said crews are hoping to be finished by the end of the week, but they have had their expectations dashed before.
“I can’t give you an end date because every time we put a shovel in the ground, we find more contaminated soil,” he said. “To be honest with you, I was hoping it would be done three weeks ago, but we found a lot more contaminated soil than we were expecting.”
The accident occurred around 9:30 a.m. Oct. 9 at Fletcher Parkway and Navajo Road. The truck was carrying 8,800 gallons of gasoline when it tipped over, spilling most of its fuel into nearby storm drains, onto the road and elsewhere.
“When the truck flipped over, gasoline got underneath the street, it got underneath the sidewalk, it got in the soil under Fletcher Parkway, and the soil was all sand and gravel,” Wise said. “It went straight down.”
Crews of 25 have been working on the site since the spill. Fletcher Parkway is lined with large, metal bins that will be filled with contaminated soil and hauled to various landfills, mostly out of state, where it will be treated.
On the morning of the crash, residents within a 300-foot radius of the site were evacuated from their homes and some people living farther away were advised to remain inside.
Power also was cut off that morning for fear of fuel leading into underground power equipment.
On Monday, some employees of businesses at the mall on the corner of Navajo Road and Fletcher Parkway said they could smell gasoline on the day of the crash. Merchants also said customers complain about traffic at the intersection, where a northbound lane of Fletcher Parkway has been closed for weeks.
“It’s an inconvenience,” said Jason Neely, owner of Jason’s Water Store. “I’ve heard my customers talking about it, how it’s still closed. It’s just an eyesore being down there for me. I don’t notice any other effects.”
Neely said the morning of the accident, he and other businesses were told power would be out until around 4 p.m. Instead, it didn’t come back until 7:30 p.m.
“We were all closed and lost business for a day,” he said. “So it affected us in that regard.”
Other businesses had it worse, he said, recalling that he heard of restaurants throwing out food and Smart & Final using a refrigerator truck to save its inventory.
While the clean-up is taking longer than expected, Wise said the EPA considers it a medium-size spill. The cleanup cost will be paid by the insurance coverage of the trucking company, Coastal Transport Company, he said.
