Cleanup crews were trying on Saturday to contain petroleum that leaked from a tanker truck that crashed and flipped upside down on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, spilling fuel into a tributary of a river that had recently been restored for salmon runs.
Preliminary estimates say about 3,000 gallons of mostly gasoline and some diesel spilled into Indian Creek, a fragile salmon habitat, after the truck crashed on Friday, according to a release from the state Department of Ecology.
U.S. 101, west of Port Angeles, was closed overnight but reopened Saturday morning, and the truck was pulled from the creek, the Department of Transportation said on its Facebook page. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.
“The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe will conduct shoreline assessments today to monitor for environmental impacts,” ecology officials said. “The Department of Health is also collecting water samples for further analysis.”
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