A squall that passed through Kilgore, Texas in just a few minutes on Monday caused hours of clean-up on the property. A toppling tree crushed a shed and struck a powerline as 770 gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel spilled out of two ruptured tanks. Fortunately, no sparks ignited the fuel.
A Monday afternoon squall roared through Meadowbrook Golf & Event Center in Kilgore, Texas for just a few minutes, but the angry winds sparked an hours-long environmental clean-up, the Kilgore (Texas) News Herald reported.
A toppling tree crushed a shed and struck a powerline first but, fortunately, no sparks ignited the gasoline and diesel fuel that spilled out of two ruptured fuel tanks crushed by the thick trunk, the News Herald reported.
The relatively quick storm came just before parts of Texas, Oklahoma and northern Mexico were hit hard by storms that brought more than 11 inches of rain, causing flooding that has killed at least 31 people with 13 reported missing, CNBC reported.
According to Kilgore City Manager Josh Selleck, a rapid response by golf course staffers and Kilgore Fire Department personnel spared the nearby fairway substantial damage and prevented the worst of the flow from draining into other areas. As of Tuesday, the price tag from capping Monday’s crisis was kept low, in the $4,000- to $5,000-range, and netted initial, positive feedback from local environmental quality agents, the News Herald reported.
“It appears like we’ve been able to significantly mitigate the impact of it,” Selleck said. “We won’t have a full accounting until we’ve kind of finalized the clean-up.”
The two blue tanks were relatively new, he said, brimming with fuel. The gasoline tank ruptured completely but the first responders were able to plug the flow of the diesel, saving about 220 gallons, the News Herald reported.
“When I got to the course the chief had already had one dump truck load of sand delivered to try to stop the flow of field,” Selleck said. Joining the mitigation effort, the city manager worked alongside Kilgore firefighters, administrative personnel, Meadowbrook employees and a crew from Bob Davis Sales. “We spent the next three hours deploying a cottonseed mixture that converted the hydrocarbons in the fuel.”
Two full pallets each contained between 60 and 80 bags of the absorbent, making relatively short work of the diesel fuel that flowed east across dirt and grass immediately south of the golf course facilities, pooling in some areas. “Because it’s dyed red you can see how far it’s made it. You could see the change in how it would actually eat the diesel fuel and the gasoline off the surface of the water and start to clump up and leave clean water behind.”
The impromptu cleanup squad deployed additional booms in multiple areas, stretching the white, cylindrical blockades across nearby drainage channels to prevent further run-off into a nearby creek. Ultimately, Selleck said, the group covered between an acre and an acre and a half with the absorbent bags, the News Herald reported.
“While we can’t be 100 percent confident it won’t run off, what will run off will be minimal,” Selleck said. “With the greenery, the way that the absorbent and the cotton-seed worked we hope that we were able to get enough of it up that it won’t have too significant of an impact.”
According to Selleck, the city immediately reported the spill to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and received an on-site visit in short order, the News Herald reported.
“They were impressed with our immediate efforts to mitigate the spill and have indicated a couple of additional steps that we might take that are a little more long-term,” he concluded.
The final cost and consequences are yet to be determined. “We’re not sure on that just yet.”
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