Inspection Of Howell Fuel Leak Cleanup Planned By County

HOWELL, NJ — Local and county health officials are scheduled for a final "walk-through" next week of the Howell Public Works site where a 200-gallon diesel fuel leak happened Monday, officials said.

Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Victor Cook gave an update of work so far at the site.

He said Riggins Oil Company, the company that was delivering the fuel, has completed the cleanup and has rechecked the storm drains.

The company will be on hand for next week's walk-through.

They did a full cleanup on Monday, Cook said, along with public works employees, and left booms down to prevent any runoff to the storm drains.

As of Friday, Cook said any remnants of fuel has been removed from the drains and safety measures - booms - were put in place to prevent runoff from the area of the overflow.

"The booms were still clean, even after a rain," Cook said Friday. But they will remain in place until soil testing is completed, he added.

The case will remain monitored until results of the soil samples taken this week come back from the licensed site remediation professional, a subcontractor of Riggins, he said. The test results will require more time, Cook said.

"We don’t anticipate any further spread of the material," he said. "We are being over-cautious by leaving booms in for a week," he added.

The diesel fuel spill happened on Monday morning and cleanup went on all day until about 8:30 p.m.

The spill was caused by an overflow of diesel fuel when a driver for Riggins Inc., a Vineland gas and oil provider, was filling the fuel pumps, according to police. Riggins is the fuel company that refuels the tanks at DPW. The fuel tanks were overfilled, causing the leak.

The township Department of Public Works is at 278 Old Tavern Road, adjacent to the police department and is in a large open area for township use.

After the diesel fuel overflowed near the township fuel pumps, the Howell Office of Emergency Management, Monmouth County Hazmat, Squankum and Southard Fire departments responded and, along with six or seven DPW workers. They contained the spill Monday to the area of the fuel pumps, officials said.

No injuries were reported because of the incident.