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Sandra Yi reporting A tractor-trailer rolled at the mouth of Parley's Canyon, spilling thousands of gallons of crude oil this afternoon. But the off-ramp it crashed on has since unexpectedly reopened.
There are a lot of underground power lines and telephone lines where the spill happened, and the company that marks the utilities couldn't make it today, so it wasn't safe for crews to start digging and cleaning it up. The Utah Highway Patrol decided to cone off the spill area and reopen the ramp to traffic.
The I-80 westbound ramp to I-215 southbound was closed for about five and a half hours after a tractor-trailer carrying 7,400 gallons of crude oil rolled. Troopers say the driver took the curve too fast.
About 6,000 gallons of oil leaked onto the roadway. The spill came very close to a sound wall with homes behind it, but officials say there was no threat to residents or the environment. They did, however, go door to door letting homeowners know what had happened. "Nothing really to alert us or to evacuate us, just to let us know that they're going to start cleaning it up and that they might be in our backyards," resident Rob Carroll said.
The driver of the truck had minor injuries, and UHP says he could be cited.
When crews are able to start cleaning up the spill area, they'll have to close at ramp again, and that could happen maybe this weekend.
The cold weather is actually helping the situation. The cold temperatures solidified the oil, turning it into a wax-like consistency. That oil isn't going anywhere for now.
