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CARBONVILLE, Carbon County — A flash flood in the Gordon Creek drainage area Sunday night wiped out a containment boom holding about 250 gallons of crude oil that had spilled into the Price River after a crash on U.S. 6 Thursday, state environmental officials said Monday.
It was unclear how much oil, if any, made it past the containment boom during the flash flood, which happened about 7 p.m. Sunday, said Donna Kemp Spangler, spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
A secondary boom was set up downriver near Wellington and the agency was assessing how much oil possibly breached the initial containment Monday, Spangler said.
She added that crews were about to clean up about two-thirds of the estimated 750 gallons of oil that entered the river before the flash flood.
The oil ended up in the river after a Maverik semitruck hauling two tankers filled with oil crossed into oncoming traffic in a construction zone and hit a bridge on U.S. 6 Thursday night, according to authorities.
State environment officials initially said 8,000 gallons of oil spilled from the tanker after the crash and 6,000 gallons entered the water. However, they later corrected the total to 4,000 gallons spilled and about 750 gallons entered the river.
“Most of the oil that spilled actually was contained on the bridge and did not go into the river,” Spangler said.
