By Carol McIntire
Editor
May 12, 2009
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| SPILL CLEANUP. Michael Peterman, an employee of North Canton Drain and Sewer Inc., vacuums heating off the bottom of a syphon pond at the FFA Camp Muskingum late Friday evening. The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District provided a backhoe to construct a dam (shown at left) that created the pool to collect the oil. |
Local, county and state agencies as well as private business spent several hours cleaning up a fuel oil spill at FFA Camp Muskingum Friday afternoon and late into the evening.
Tom Cottis, Carroll County Emergency Management Agency director, said the spill of heating oil was contained in a waterway that leads to Leesville Lake. “We were lucky as it did not reach the lake,” he said.
The spill occurred when a heating oil tank containing approximately 120 gallons of home heating oil developed at the Adventure Center developed a hole in the bottom of it.
Camp Director Todd Davis said there were leaves under the tank and since the Adventure Center is not a building that is used on a daily basis, the leak probably developed over a period of time.
“We had a group coming in to use the Adventure Center over the weekend so we went over to check everything,” he said. “That’s when we found the hole in the tank.”
Between 80 and 100 gallons of fuel oil spilled onto the ground, made its way into the rock bed and eventually into the waterway. Dan Shroyer, Carroll County wildlife protection officer for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife, was contacted by FFA Camp officials about the spill. Shroyer, in turn, contacted the Sheriff’s Department, who contacted Cottis at about 1:52 p.m.
Cottis said while on his way to the scene he contaced Perrysville, Carrollton Village and Carroll County fire departments. “When I learned the spill might involve a large amount of heating oil, I contacted the Carroll County Hazmat team,” he explained.
Tom Mesler, Carrollton Village Fire Department chief, was the incident commander at the scene. Cottis had high praise for Mesler and the job he did.
“Tom did an outstanding job,” Cottis said. “It was a great team effort to keep the spill from reaching the lake. Everyone worked well together.”
The EMA director said diversion ponds, already established in the waterway, were used to divert the oil. The team used booms (long white sock-like objects) to help divert and absorb the oil and absorbant pads were placed on top of the water.
The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District supplied a backhoe to construct a dam and make a siphon pond.
Once the spill was contained to the pond, the water was siphoned off the bottom and the oil settled.
A private company named Sunpro of North Canton was selected by FFA Camp officials to conduct the cleanup. They utilized the services of North Canton Drain and Sewer to vacuum the oil from the siphon pond.
Cottis said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was contacted as is required with oil spills and they also responded to the scene.
He said officials remained at the scene until after 11 p.m. and he returned both Saturday and Sunday to check on the status of the cleanup. “As of Sunday, it was a safe situation, but I believe we will leave everything in place until the end of the week,” he said.
“Everyone worked well together and it was a great effort,” Cottis praised. “We especially want to thank Crossroads Pizza for providing pizza for everyone at the scene.”
Davis, as well, had words of praise for everyone involved. “We averted a situation that could have been a lot worse,” he said. “Everyone involved did a great job, from Tom Cottis and Tom Mesler to the fire department and the MWCD. It was a fabulous job by everyone involved.”
Davis said MWCD officials checked the site Monday and were pleased with the cleanup effort as well. |
