Park still cleaning Yellowstone's biggest road fuel spill in nearly 20 years

[TexasTowelie]

YELLOWSTONE — The road between Mud Volcano and Fishing Bridge Junction remains closed as the park service and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality work to clean up the largest roadside fuel spill in Yellowstone National Park in nearly 20 years.

The spill was caused after a tandem trailer on a commercial motor vehicle overturned, releasing approximately 3,000 gallons of unleaded fuel.

A large hole in the road was excavated to locate the extent of the spilled gasoline, remove the contaminated soil, and ensure cleanup. The hole is 100 feet wide by 100 feet long by 10 feet deep. Currently, there is no evidence that gasoline entered the Yellowstone River.

Excavated materials contaminated with gasoline will be removed from the park and disposed of at an appropriate facility.

Read more: https://buckrail.com/park-still-cleaning-yellowstones-biggest-road-fuel-spill-in-nearly-20-years/

[2naSalit]

1. I know exactly where that is.

What I want to know is how a tanker rolled right there. Look at the area, no sharp curves...

[Nitram]

2. The photo accompanying the article shows it occurred on a curve. The driver was probably

going too fast.

[2naSalit]

3. Just about everyone goes too fast through the park in general.

Still was a stupid accident.

[Nitram]

4. Yes it was. Here's an interesting discussion of the environmental ramifications of transporting

fuel in the park:

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2020/08/crews-clean-gasoline-spill-yellowstone-national-park

[2naSalit]

5. Well...

They get the environmental impacts but they are not all that well informed about the transportation part. I used to drive on of those very type rigs around five counties of SoCal for about 18 months, hated it, ruined my shoulders.

The truck is a "truck and trailer" which means there is an 4000gal tank on the power unit, a long framed truck-same undercarriage as a dump truck, pretty stable unit. The trailer is attached by a draw-bar of about 15ft. The trailer is an 4800gal unit, I can tell by its length. They are squirrely on wet pavement, I have ended up in a "Z" formation once on the 405 trying to stop for an accident... the front axle of the trailer can do a 360 round.

So the area is right above LeHardy's Rapids which is where the ONE CURVE in the road is. And it was wet but it still takes some doing to roll one of those things. I've had them off pavement on construction sites on hills and all manner of two lane and I would have to really make an effort to roll one of those. And that isn't a bad stretch of road so... smh.