Fuel tanker flips, dumps nearly 3,000 gallons of fuel oil in Mahoning

Nearly 3,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled after a fuel tanker flipped over on Route 209 in Mahoning Township Wednesday morning, closing the road for several hours.

Township police Chief Audie Mertz said the incident occurred at 8:54 a.m. when a truck from D&D Fuel was traveling down Beaver Street.

“It lost control, rolled over, and landed in the intersection,” Mertz said. “The fuel did make it into the Lehigh (River).”

Mertz said the driver, Dennis Ruch, 66, of Lehighton, was not injured, but was transported to St. Luke’s Lehighton Campus.

He said it is unknown if Ruch will be cited because the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Carbon County Emergency Management Agency coordinator Mark Nalesnik said the road was closed down until the early evening hours.

“The certified hazmat cleanup contractor was on scene until early evening, and I hope they are going to finish up today with the remediation work that has to be done,” Nalesnik said.

“These things do happen, and they’re unfortunate, and in this case, it just so happens a large quantity went into the Lehigh River, which is a navigable waterway.”

Nalesnik added, “We do our best to protect the environment in all ways, and in this situation, everything is being done that can be done to get this incident resolved and cleaned up to the best that it can be.”

Colleen Connolly, Department of Environmental Protection community relations coordinator, Northeast Regional Office, said the tanker truck had 2,500 gallons of heating oil and 300 gallons of kerosene.

“The spilled product migrated from the tanker onto the roadway and into a road culvert/stormwater system and into the Lehigh River,” Connolly said. “River is impacted from Lehighton downstream toward Lehigh Valley. Large white absorbent pads have been placed at the outfall of the river to soak up product that has not made it to river.”

Connolly said DEP was on site assessing the impacts to the river banks and the river itself. Some soil may have to be excavated.

She said DEP Safe Drinking Water was notifying downstream water service providers that rely on the river for drinking water supplies in the Lehigh Valley.

Connolly added that the DEP investigation is ongoing.

She said the following public water systems are currently permitted to withdraw water from the Lehigh River: Lehighton Water Authority, Northampton Borough, LCA Allentown Division, and Hazleton City Authority. Hazleton is not likely impacted since it is upstream of the spill.

Resident Leslie Rolle, who lives in the 100 block of Mauch Chunk Road near where the fuel oil spill occurred, explained what she witnessed.

“I heard a noise, so I came downstairs to look out the window,” Rolle said. “It was literally like a river of red.”

Rolle said police and firefighters arrived on scene quickly.

“I just hope the driver’s safe,” she said. “It sucks for everybody who had to be delayed, but the environment has to come first.”

Rolle praised all the volunteers for their efforts.

“I just want to say thank you to all the responders who came out,” she said. “They did a great job.”

Jay Michalik, assistant chief, Mahoning Valley Fire Company, heaped praise on all who were involved with the cleanup efforts.

“This is just a terrific example of volunteers being community-minded, well-trained,” Michalik said. “I can’t say enough about the people you see here.”

Also assisting at the scene were the Lehighton Police Department; Lehighton Fire Department, Mahoning Valley Fire Department, Carbon County Emergency Management, Rapid Response Inc., Lehighton Ambulance, and DEP Emergency Response Team also assisted at the scene.

A detour was set up from the Jim Thorpe side, routing motorists from Route 209 to Oak Drive to Beaver Run Road and back to Packerton Dam Drive.