Wells to monitor spill from I-95 crash in Groton

Groton - Some of the home heating oil that spilled from a tanker truck during a three-vehicle accident on Interstate 95 Wednesday has seeped into groundwater, and test wells were being installed Thursday to monitor for contamination.

"It has encountered groundwater," Rosanne Stavola, emergency response coordinator for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said Thursday at the cleanup site, between exits 88 and 89 on the northbound side of the highway. The test wells also would be used to pump out contaminated groundwater, she said.

Six drinking water wells at homes on Flanders Road, which could be in the path of the spill, will be sampled periodically to determine whether any of the oil reaches them, said Ryan McCammon, senior sanitarian for Ledge Light Health District. The sampling would begin after permission from the homeowners is obtained.

"It's not an immediate risk," McCammon said.

Stavola was at the site supervising Kropp Environmental Contractors of Lebanon, the contractor hired by DEEP to do the cleanup. As of Thursday afternoon, about 320 tons of oil-soaked soil and 2,700 gallons of an oil-water mix had been removed from the site. An estimated 1,200 gallons of oil spilled from the tanker, which also was sprayed with water by emergency crews after it caught fire, said Dwayne Gardner, DEEP spokesman.

Gardner said the cleanup is expected to continue into today.

At the scene Thursday, backhoes were filling with gravel a large trench between the edge of the roadway and a rock ledge a few away, after having dug out the contaminated soil. Crews also were installing large PVC pipes in the ground for the monitoring wells. Stavola said the crews had dug up all the soil down to bedrock.

Baker Salisbury, executive director of Ledge Light, said geological and groundwater maps of a one-half mile area around the spill site were consulted to determine the likely path of any oil that seeps into groundwater, and the location of any private wells that could be affected. No public drinking water supplies are in proximity.

State police said Thursday that the accident is under investigation. According to a state police report, the driver of the tanker truck, owned by Town and Country Discount Oil of Jewett City, lost control of his vehicle, causing it to roll over. The driver of the truck has not been identified.

Two cars also were involved in the crash, a 2002 Hyundai Elantra driven by Kathy Naylor, 42, of Marietta, Ga., and a 2004 Toyota Camry driven by Ashley Richard, 26, of 183 Boston Post Road, East Lyme. All three vehicles had to be towed from the scene. All three drivers sustained minor injuries, according to police.

The accident closed the highway for several hours, backing up rush-hour traffic on other roads in the area as drivers sought alternate routes.

Several local fire departments and ambulance crews responded to the scene, along with Lawrence & Memorial Hospital paramedics and state police.

j.benson@theday.com