At least 1,000 gallons of off-road diesel fuel leaked from a truck at Foss Construction Co. overnight Monday, sending fuel into the Middle River, the Pleasant River and through vital smelt spawning beds.
“This is a mess,” Robert Shannon of the Department of Environmental Protection said while overseeing the cleanup. Shannon said his crew and Clean Harbors Inc. would be on site for days and it could be weeks before the fuel dissipates from the 3½ miles of affected river.
“It’s kind of like the perfect storm,” Shannon said. “We have a ground spill that enters a brook, which feeds a stream [that flows] into one river that connects with another and ends up at a fish hatchery and spawning grounds.”