SHARPSBURG, Pa. — Southbound Route 28 in Sharpsburg reopened Wednesday morning after first responders worked for hours to clean up after a tanker truck crashed onto its side and spilled thousands of gallons of diesel.
Both lanes reopened around 3 a.m.
Allegheny County Emergency Services Chief Matt Brown says the single-vehicle crash happened around 5:15 p.m. near Exit 5 to Etna. The driver of the truck suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Etna Fire Chief Greg Porter said diesel was on fire on the roadway when they got on scene. The truck did not catch fire but was damaged in the crash.
“It was leaking pretty rapidly. Crews did a good job isolating the area to make sure no one else was being exposed, getting the driver out and get medical care,” Porter said.
The tanker truck holds 7,500 gallons of diesel, but the portion damaged in the crash holds 2,200 to 2,500 gallons, Porter said. All of the diesel within the damaged part of the truck leaked out onto Route 28 or into Pine Creek.
It’s not currently known how much diesel ended up in the creek, but officials say it is a significant amount. Boom operations are in effect at several points in the creek and its connection to the Allegheny River.
The diesel in the creek is a concern for a local business.
“Our main concern was we use water in our dough every day and we were worried if it got into the water, we didn’t want it to make anyone sick so we went out of our way to buy gallons of water just in case,” said Sera Lord with Rising Crust.
Chief Porter said crews worked quickly to contain the fuel in the creek with emergency equipment.
“The diesel appears to be on the surface or on the soil which is a good thing we can see where it is and there’s four different contaminate areas with pads to collect that,” said Chief Porter.
Porter said the DEP is handling the clean-up of the water and soil. He said local water systems were not impacted.
“All the water intakes like Shaler, Hampton West View water, Pittsburgh, Penn American were all notified immediately of what was going on. They did emergency actions,” Porter said.
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