Trucking company fined for East Shore spill
file photo
In 2008, workers dump fill dirt along Montana Highway 35 where nearly 6,380 gallons of gasoline spilled into the ground and leached into fresh water sources.
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
POLSON — Keller Transportation Inc. of Billings recently was fined for a 2008 spill of 6,380 gallons of gasoline on Montana Highway 35. This resulted in gasoline “entering springs along Flathead Lake, impacting groundwater as well as the lake,” according to a May 7 press release from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Keller has agreed to pay $83,500 in penalties, addressing violations of the Oil Pollution Act that prohibits the discharge of oil to waters of the U.S.
“This penalty serves as a strong reminder that every effort must be taken to avoid accidents and spills when hauling hazardous materials. EPA will take necessary steps to protect the public,” said Mike Gaydosh, EPA enforcement director in Denver.
April marked an anniversary with no happy memories for at least five families on the east shore of Flathead Lake. On April 2, 2008, a Keller Transportation tanker trailer wrecked on Montana Highway 35 between mile markers 5 and 6, spilling gasoline onto the east side of the highway. Rita and Tom Jones were one of the households affected by the spillage of gasoline.
“We live on a mountainside,” Rita explained.
When the gas spilled, it soaked into the ground and into crevices underground. Rain and snow makes it worse, she said, but now the EPA thinks they’ve got the majority of the gasoline.
“(Area homeowners) have (a) community well, but it was not affected by the gas spill,” Rita said.
The Joneses had to relocate until the EPA allowed them back in the house. Neighbors Barbara and Ron Kohler also relocated, as did three other households. Remediation workers installed abatement systems in the houses’ basements, digging channels and laying perforated pipe and using a battery system to draw water outside and then sealing the floors. The residents moved back into their homes in June 2009, but it took Rita another two years to be able to breathe in their home, she said.
The area surrounding the houses, including trees, grassy areas, springs and beachfront, “can never really be back the way it was,” Barbara said.
Rita agreed. As well as digging out trees and lawns, workers put trenches in about 20 feet from the lakeshore so nothing can be planted closer than that. The big trees, 60 to 70 feet tall, were good shade and provided privacy, she said.
Replacement plants were “rejects from the nurseries, as far as we could see,” Rita said.
The EPA said things would be back to normal in six to eight years, but other sources say it will be 80 years before Mother Nature finishes cleanup.
“I am 75,” Rita said. “I will not be alive in 80 years.”
The neighbors had always been careful to keep a buffer between homes and trees to screen their property from boaters on Flathead Lake, Barbara said. Now most of this is gone.
“We all miss our privacy,” she said.
She particularly misses their spring. Water burbled up seven days a week, 365 days a year at approximately 30 gallons per minute.
The first raw gas showed up in the spring, Barbara said.
“You take what you get, and you don’t pitch a fit,” Barbara said. “Although we pitched a fit, it didn’t help, because we still see gas trucks on the road.
“It’s different (now). But we’re in our home, so we’ll try and enjoy it the way it is.”
Speed was a factor in the accident that occurred when the tanker, pulling a “pup” trailer, hit the edge of the road and overturned. Keller driver Jon Digoren was cited for careless driving at the time of the accident.
The EPA, coordinating with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, has been working with Keller to clean up the site since April 2008. The EPA issued an administrative order to Keller for the remediation activities that were necessary at the site. Remediation included installation of air abatement systems in the affected homes, ongoing air monitoring, removal and appropriate disposal of contaminated soil and installation of a groundwater collection trench and a permanent water treatment system to treat the contaminated groundwater.
