Town Suffers Huge Diesel Spill

Lest the oil spill in the Gulf get all the local attention, a 10,000 gallon fuel tank in Wilton's bus yard decided to rupture recently in a slippery game of oneupsmanship.

First Selectman Bill Brennan reported Tuesday night that the town discovered the leaking tank in mid-August. They had to act quickly to mitigate the environmental impact and avoid expensive state-imposed sanctions.

"I could smell it before I got out of my car 40 feet away," Brennan said of the first time he visited the site.

The tank, which holds diesel to fuel the town's 40 busses, was 18 years old, faltering just two years shy of its expected life. The leak was discovered when town officials noticed discrepancies between readings from the tank monitoring system and the logbook that bus drivers use to mark their fuel consumption.

The Connectiut Deparment of Environmental Protection had an emergency response coordinator help Wilton find a consultant that could complete "the activities necessary to address the fuel release," Brennan said. The town ultimately hired Leggette, Brashears & Graham Inc., a company well known for its work in soil remediation.

Work began to remove the 87,500-pound tank, buried about 20 feet below ground, on Aug. 23. The town also made nine borings in the soil at a depth of 16 feet in the surrounding area to determine the extent to which the fuel had dispersed into the ground.

"The hole was like a new swimming pool in town," Brennan said, without the kind of glee summertime swimming holes usually inspire.

Eventually, more than 700 tons of soil were transported and disposed of at Phoenix Soil in Waterbury, CT. According to Department of Public Works Director Tom Thurkettle, Phoenix takes the soil and incinerates it, enabling it to be recycled once the oil has burned off.

"That was expensive," Brennan said of the costs associated with hauling 700 tons of dirt almost 50 miles.

The site has since been back-filled by the town DPW. While Wilton works to purchase and install its next fuel tank, buses are being routed to Town Hall to fill up. So far, the temporary transition has been seamless according to town officials.

By working quickly to remove the tank and clean up the spill, Brennan said Wilton was able to avoid having the state step in and handle the process. Had that happened, an already costly project could have become even more so.

"This has been a very well-coordinated team effort with the town," Brennan said. "There have been a lot of people involved with this."

Despite being able to see "all the black oil that was in there until they took it away," both Brennan and Wilton DPW officials said there will be almost no environmental impact as a result. Because the spill was discovered and dealt with quickly, and because of bedrock beneath the soil that kept the fuel from seeping further into the ground and heading for water, containment was relatively easy.

The problem now becomes paying for all of it.

Brennan said a total cost has not yet been established, but he did throw up some preliminary figures: $14,000 for a consultant, $7,400 to pull the tank, $40,000 for a replacement tank, and $35,000 for fuel recycling (700 tons at $48 per ton). Those figures alone, not factoring in labor and additional expenses, come to almost $100,000. That money is expected to come out of a special town appropriation.

"Right now we're just trying to get the facts and data and then we can see what we'll get refunded out of this account," Brennan said, referring to a special state fund that will sometimes defray some of the costs of such incidents. "It's not a guarantee that we'll get refunded because the state has its own problems."

Wilton is now trying to decide on a replacement tank. DPW officials said the new tank will likely be an above-ground one, which is easier to maintain and monitor, if slightly more expensive. The town will likely also be required to put in a well to monitor the ground water quality for the next year.