Oil truck spills 1,000 gallons into Ossining brook
By ROBERT MARCHANT
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: November 12, 2005)
OSSINING - Cleanup crews were working last night to soak up 1,000 gallons of oil that had spilled into a brook leading into the Croton River.
A delivery truck from All County Fuel hit a rock while driving through a very sharp turn on Old Albany Post Road near Reservoir Road in the Crotonville section of Ossining around 2 p.m. yesterday. The rock punctured the 1,000-gallon tank on the truck, said Ossining Fire Chief Mauro Santucci. The truck carries 3,000 gallons, but only one tank was punctured.
The heating oil spilled into a storm water basin that led into the brook, bounded by a deep gorge. An oil slick about 300 yards long spread over the brook before a containment barrier stopped it.
"They were able to dam it up before it reached the river with booms and pads," Santucci said. "They stopped it pretty quickly."
The Croton River, which runs into the Hudson River, is a favored destination of birds and waterfowl. There were no immediate reports yesterday of damage to local wildlife.
Teams from Westchester County, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the Coast Guard were called to the scene. Workers from an oil-spill cleanup company, Dutchess Environmental Construction, based in Mahopac, used vacuum hoses and absorbent pads to remove the oil from the brook.
"There are about 15 to 20 guys working on it right now," said Andrew Hofer, a local resident whose property adjoins the brook. "There are workers all over my front lawn, trucks all over the place."
Hofer, a computer programmer, said it appeared that a quick response mitigated much of the potential damage. "They contained it pretty well. But there's a danger to the wetlands, if it carries into the marshes. That will be a real mess to clean up," he said.
The odor from the oil spread out over the neighborhood, as workers soaked up the oil and then wrapped up the dirty pads in special containers.
"I don't think there's a health problem, but the smell is really bad," Hofer said. "And those vacuums are going all night long. Not good for sleep."