Good Samaritans rushed toward a diesel spill after a semi wreck that dumped 50 gallons of fuel on a Gig Harbor street in June.
"It was just really training," Jennifer Cooley, property manager at the adjacent Olympic Square Townhomes, told The News Tribune.
Cooley was one of three team members at the apartments who jumped into action and kept the bulk of the diesel out of the city's stormwater system.
In a department update for the City Council June 24, Public Works Director Jeff Langhelm wrote: "Fortunately, the maintenance crew from the nearby Olympic Square Townhomes jumped into action and placed their own absorbents to try and help stop the diesel from getting into the city's storm system. Because of this early intervention, only one catch basin was impacted," which limited the potential pollution.
The wreck happened June 6 on 32nd Avenue, behind Fred Meyer and right by the Olympic Square Townhomes.
Cooley told The News Tribune that maintenance supervisor Zach Townson "came into the office and said: 'Hey Jenn a semi just got into an accident and there's a puncture in the gas tank and there's diesel coming out of it.'"
A vehicle had crashed into the semi and clipped the semi's gas tank, Cooley said. No one was injured, but they knew the diesel was a problem.
Cooley told Townson to grab their spill kit, and they started responding, along with their regional maintenance supervisor, George Manguru.
They were ready.
"Monthly we do safety meetings," Cooley said. "And we have a spill kit for not just these incidents, but any type of incident that requires cleanup."
They blocked off the road, told residents to stay away, stopped cars from coming through and called 911.
And because the diesel was heading toward the city's storm system, they used the spill kit and tried to block it.
Cooley said the area smelled strongly of fuel, and her concern was protecting residents and others in the area. She was worried about the risk of a fire, though firefighters later told her this sort of crash with this sort of fuel wouldn't have caused one.
"I think everyone really needs to be trained like that on a monthly basis," she said. "No one would ever think that a semi is going to get into an accident right by my property and start spilling fuel everywhere."
She said Manguru sends emails each month about what they should discuss at their trainings, and they've done a postmortem about what to do if a crash like this were to happen again.
She's worked for Edison47, the management company for the property, for 11 years.
"I worked with a management company prior to Edison47 and they never implemented showing people how to use spill kits," she said.
Edison47 puts a lot into training their employees, she said.
"You don't ever know what is going to happen on a day-to-day basis," she said. "Better to be prepared."
'They were so quick to respond'
Stormwater engineering technician Michael Abboud told The News Tribune the wreck punctured one of the two diesel fuel tanks on the truck.
He said the Olympic Square Townhomes crew "threw what they had absorbent-wise in the catch basin" to stop the diesel.
Some fuel did get into the catch basin, and a vacuum truck had to come out to remove it, but the fuel didn't reach the pipe in the catch basin that would have caused the diesel to spread further.
"We were able to avoid that, in part because they were so quick to respond," Abboud said.
When fire crews told Abboud what happened, he went into the Olympic Square lobby to give the team the city's thanks.
He said their quick response to the spill surprised him.
"First of all, it takes knowledge, knowing this is an issue, this could be a problem, and having the wherewithal to respond and do something," he said.
Depending on the weather and where a spill happens, he said, if it's not contained it could go down through the stormwater system, and diesel could end up in sensitive environments.
"These storm drains are important, they don't get treated, they go right to our surface waters, they affect the aquatic life there and our own water sources," he said. "It's really important that we do what we can to keep them from getting polluted."
Abboud wrote in a follow-up email to The News Tribune that "if anyone sees something that looks like it could be a spill or potential spill or a general environmental concern, they can contact their city or county to report it and we can come take a look at it."
Over-reporting is better than under-reporting, he said.
Gig Harbor residents can reach out by going to gigharborwa.gov and clicking "Report a Concern," or by calling 253-851-6170.
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