Massive Cleanup Of '05 Diesel Spill Begins New Phase

Cleanup of a 2005 diesel spill entered a new phase recently in a neighborhood at Wilkinson Drive and State Road 574.

Workers for a company hired to help in the cleanup, Universal Solutions, last week started excavating a 10-by-20-foot area to a depth of about 5 feet, just east of Wilkinson Drive. The crews moved the earth to improve a drain field for a groundwater treatment system being used in the cleanup.

The work was necessary because the old drain field wasn't working properly, said Jerry Aycock, the director of environmental health and safety for Kinder Morgan, parent company of Central Florida Pipeline. Central Florida owns and operates a pipeline system that includes the 10-inch pipeline that was carrying diesel when it burst in September 2005, spilling about 37,800 gallons.

As part of the massive cleanup, a series of shallow water wells was installed along the CSX rail line near where the oil spilled. A water treatment system separates any oily residue from the water and allows distilled gases to evaporate. The water passes through a series of carbon filters and is then pumped to the drain field and returned to the ground.

In another recent phase of the cleanup, chemicals were injected into the ground to dissipate the remaining fuel. Some residents downwind of the site complained of an allergic reaction to the escaping fumes.

"The chemical we use is essentially hydrogen peroxide," Aycock said. "That is the same thing you might use on your body for cuts or scrapes."

Aycock said the chemical helps to break the diesel residue found in the soil into carbon particles, which are trapped in the filtration system, and carbon dioxide, which dissolves in the water and evaporates into the air.

Once the drain field work is completed, the treated water will discharge along the section of pipe in the drain field, pass through a bed of gravel and eventually seep into the natural sugar-sand below.

URS Corp., a consulting and remediation firm working for Central Florida Pipeline, reported that more than 15,000 tons of contaminated soil had been removed from the small neighborhood since the spill. Quarterly reports submitted by URS show the vast majority of the fuel has been recovered, said Noel Morera, a professional engineer at the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission.

The work on the drain field started Sept 30 and will be completed within a few days. It's not clear when the entire cleanup will conclude.

Kinder Morgan has spent $8 million on the cleanup so far and expects to spend another $2 million. It's also not clear what caused the pipe to rupture, but Kinder Morgan suspects the pipe was damaged by a company installing fiber-optic cable in the neighborhood west of Turkey Creek Road.

The pipeline system, which includes a 16-inch pipe on the same site, has been in operation since 1965. The lines transport fuel from Tampa to Orlando, largely on CSX right of ways.