The Ministry of the Environment says cleanup from a January spill of jet fuel on the 401 is estimated to be completed by the end of September.
Cleanup of the spill of about 50,000 litres of jet fuel was originally expected to take only a few weeks to complete, but winter weather and other factors kept pushing back the estimate.
Mill Creek and Aberfoyle Creek became contaminated after the Jan. 13 rollover of a double tanker truck, carrying between 40,000 and 50,000 litres of jet fuel
In a statement emailed to GuelphToday on Friday, Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks spokesperson Gary Wheeler said the company involved in the spill has so far paid $61,745.30 toward spill costs and expenses recovery.
“Ministry staff are continuing to hold regular discussions with the consultants hired by the insurance provider of Brown Fuels Transport Ltd. to oversee remediation at the site,” said Wheeler. “The ministry will continue to document our costs associated with the activities as clean-up continues.”
A mobile sewage works has been set up by Shaver Environmental near the site of the spill to treat water impacted by the jet fuel. Contaminated soil has been removed to an off-site remediation facility for disposal.
Wheeler said five 3,000 gallon storage tanks have been temporarily installed at the site to allow for continued removal of infiltrated water from excavation trenches.
“Containment measures remain in place to ensure jet fuel impacted water is not entering Aberfoyle Creek,” said Wheeler.
Another company, Stantec, is focusing on the assessment and clean-up activities along Aberfoyle and Mill Creek.
“Stantec retained biologists to assist in the ongoing assessment of environmental impacts. To date no impacted wildlife have been observed,” said Wheeler.
In January, the ministry said staff observed jet fuel odours at Shade’s Mill Reservoir.
Recent sediment and surface water sampling results from the beach area of Shade’s Mill Reservoir conducted by the ministry show the concentration of parameters related to the jet fuel spill are below the method detection limit for all samples collected, said Wheeler.
“We’re also in touch with the Ministry of Transportation to discuss ongoing soil and water delineation efforts at the scene,” he added.
It is estimated that remediation of surface water and soil near the scene will be complete by the end of September.
