Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408040025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Eight homes near the Brookside golf course are getting new lawns courtesy of the Roanoke County government, the result of a trash truck's busted hydraulic line and a bungled cleanup effort earlier this summer.
What started as a small oil spill turned into a minor comedy of errors involving bureaucrats from two state agencies and engineers from a company that specializes in contaminated soils.
The soil removal and resodding job began July 25. Officials expect it will be finished by next week.
Next time, "we'll do several things differently," conceded Gardner Smith, the county's director of general services. "Forty-five gallons certainly is a significant spill, but we would like to highlight the positive side of the response."
The accident occurred on June 26 along Greenway Drive, one of three streets in a small community of 30-year-old split foyers tucked behind the par-3 golf course off Williamson Road.
As one of the county's automated "one-armed bandit" garbage trucks hoisted a garbage can, a clamp on a hydraulic line loosened, spewing 45 gallons of the oil-based fluid onto the street and a yard.
The county responded by calling in a hazardous materials team. Workers laid booms to contain the mess and mopped up much of the fluid with absorbent material, Smith said. Then, they decided to break down the rest by pressure washing.
Big mistake.
"They just sprayed it off and that made it worse, spread it out," said Sherrie Howell, one of the affected homeowners.
The sprayer diffused the oil and turned it into a fine mist that spread across yards on both sides of the street for a 75-yard stretch, raising fears among residents that their yards were contaminated.
Although hydraulic fluid poses little health risk and doesn't damage grass, homeowners in the affected area were concerned that they would have to disclose the contamination in real estate sales contracts should they ever decide to sell their properties.
The county met with them and agreed to mitigate the damage by testing soils, removing contaminated areas and replacing the lawns. Smith said he expects the total cost will run between $18,000 and $20,000, not counting repaving a section of the street if the state Department of Transportation requires it.
Under an emergency contract, the county hired Roanoke-based Environmental Directions to clean up the dirty soil. It brought a mobile lab to the street, and technicians determined that the oil had spread into eight yards.
Debbie Oyler, president of the company, said the contaminated soil will be hauled to North Carolina for treatment before it can be dumped in a landfill.
Not all of each front yard was contaminated, she said.
"Most of [the replacement sod] is for aesthetics. It would look funny to have two different types of grass down," Oyler said.
The work site is now a mess. Several yards are stripped bare, and silt fences stand along the curb to contain runoff from storms. Three trash bins filled with dirt and sod line the street; two others already have been carted off. A few of the yards have been sodded completely.
Residents seem happy with the outcome.
"So far [the county] has done exactly what they said they would do. I think they are sincerely trying to rectify the problem in the best way they know how," said Stephen Roberts, one of the affected homeowners.
Smith said the county will attempt to recover at least a part of the cost from the company that made the $110,000 truck. It was only a week old, he said.
The county also will ask for a design change to minimize chances the same clamp could come loose again. And it has retrofitted seven other "one-armed bandit" trucks with additional clamps.
On a temporary basis, the county has retained Environmental Directions to handle cleanups after other potentially hazardous spills. In the future the county will solicit bids for the service, Smith said.
by CNB