Tractor-trailer crash spills diesel fuel into Queens County river

A section of Highway 210 in Buckfield, Queens County was shut down for several hours Thursday after a tractor-trailer jackknifed and crashed on a bridge, leaking diesel fuel into a river below.

RCMP and Greenfield firefighters were called to the crash late Thursday morning near Labelle Road.  RCMP spokesman Const. Dominic Laflamme said the truck driver wasn’t believed to be seriously injured, but he hadn’t received confirmation from the scene.

Roads were slippery at the time.

The cab of the truck ended up partially hanging over the edge of the bridge, and one of the truck’s fuel tanks ruptured after the vehicle pushed through the guardrail. That tank leaked, but because the two tanks on either side of the cab are linked, the second tank drained as well. There was an estimated 400 litres in the tanks.

Bridgewater firefighters were also called, along with a hazardous materials teams from the Wolfville, New Minas and Kentville fire departments in Kings County to deal with the fuel spill.

Team spokesman Chad Schrader said that crews placed special absorbent booms across the water to add to what had been put out already.

“We doubled on what they had until Nova Scotia Public Works arrived, and they brought in an abatement company,” he said. “We followed the river down as far as we could until it turned to ice. They were going to triple up on what we did and then the abatement company is going to clean everything up.”

Some of the fuel was collected as it leaked before the hazmat team arrived, so the full contents of the tanks didn’t get into the waterway, Schrader said.

“They did everything they could to mitigate it with buckets and such,” he said. “They caught as much as they could and transported it to another container.”

The truck was not hauling any hazardous goods in the trailer.

“The trailer wasn’t compromised at all, and the tractor wasn’t damaged that much either,” Schrader said. “It’s just the way it hit the guardrail, it punctured the saddle tank and came to a rest teetering on the edge of the bridge.”

Kristin Matthews, a spokesperson for the provincial Department of Environment and Climate Change, said in an email that a department officer was on the scene and “assessing the adverse effects of the spill and will ensure appropriate action is taken, if needed.”

A vacuum truck was also on-site helping with cleanup.

“ECC’s role is to assess to determine if there are any adverse effects to the environment and if so, ensure the person responsible for the spill is complying with all environmental regulations,” Matthews said. “The owner of the fuel is responsible for complying with environmental regulations, and any required cleanup and remediation.”

The crash site is about a kilometre from Ponhook Lake.

The crash was only about 17 metres from where a tractor-trailer flipped on Jan. 7, trapping the driver in the upside down vehicle for two hours.