Oregon highway between Bend and Salem reopens
Columbia Basin Herald | UPDATED 4 years, 11 months AGO
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The main Oregon highway connecting Salem and Bend reopened Saturday after a tanker crash and gas spill forced a week-long closure.
The double tanker trunk spilled an estimated 7,800 gallons of petroleum products into the soil at the crash site east of Idanha, the Statesman Journal newspaper in Salem reported.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said in a prepared statement that water quality tests done on the North Santiam River show the concentration of petroleum levels is below federal safe drinking water levels except for in the immediate vicinity of the crash. The agency said there is no impact to nearby cities’ drinking water, and workers will continue to test the water quality in the area periodically.
Cleanup crews dug up and hauled away about 6,200 tons of contaminated soil. Workers also added a new guardrail near the site of the crash. The area has had two major tanker crashes and spills into the North Santiam River in the last three years.