AUGUSTA — A Greater Augusta Utility District well shut down as a precaution earlier this week after fuel spilled from a Sunday tractor-trailer crash on Interstate 95 was turned back on Thursday after fuel spilled in the crash was cleaned up.
The crash was on the Bond Brook overpass above the well.
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District officials, after conferring with state Department of Environmental Protection officials, are confident the well was not contaminated. However, they will test for contamination by diesel fuel, oil or other chemicals, both now and later this summer, to make sure the well water is safe to drink.
Brian Tarbuck, superintendent of Greater Augusta Utility District, said the well was turned back on Thursday morning after DEP officials said the risk of contamination is small.
“The DEP said its contractor removed the sand (which was spread at the accident site to soak up spilled diesel fuel and oil) and did the best they could to get all the oil off the ground,” Tarbuck said. “The DEP is satisfied with that … They believe (the cleanup) is complete.”
Tarbuck said the well will be tested again this summer, because if contaminants got into the ground it could take them a long time to move through the soil, especially since it is frozen.
Tarbuck and Peter Blanchard, director of responsive services for the state DEP, said that following the truck crash, they did not believe the district’s well was contaminated by fluids from the accident, and the well was shut down only as a precaution.
Blanchard said about 120 gallons of diesel spilled on the road. Below the interstate, it appeared at least some fuel had also spilled down onto and near Bond Brook Road. The truck’s front axle, separated from the vehicle in the crash, also fell off the overpass and landed near Bond Brook Road below.
The accident occurred around 10 p.m. Sunday when the driver of the tractor-trailer, Anna Tronscosco-Williams, 22, of Indiana, lost control on the icy road and struck the guardrail in the northbound lane. She was not injured and no charges were filed.
The accident shut down both northbound lanes for hours, though one lane was opened up to traffic Monday morning and both lanes are now open.
The district has three wells, all on the west side of the Kennebec River, including the well that was shut down and has since been restarted. Tarbuck said the two wells that weren’t shut down could meet the district’s water needs for a few days, and the district also has water in storage tanks.
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