Fuel spill closes Highway 200

GREENOUGH – Highway 200 was closed for more than six hours Saturday, Oct. 30 due to a fuel spill that covered all three lanes just past Sunset Hill Road at the top of Greenough Hill. Greenough-Potomac Volunteer Fire Department (GPVFD) and Missoula Rural Fire Department's Hazmat Team ran traffic control. Once the road was sanded, Highway 200 was opened around 10:30 p.m. As of Monday evening, Nov. 1, Montana Department of Transportation is still reporting loose gravel with reduced speeds of 35 mile per hour between mile markers 24 – 25.

GPVFD Fire Chief Ryan Hall said they were paged out around 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon for a hazmat response on Highway 200. When he arrived, traffic was driving through the fuel slick. It had been spread shoulder-to-shoulder across Highway 200 in all three driving lanes stretching approximately 250 yards in one lane and 450 yards in the other.

Hall explained a pickup towing a trailer with a 500-gallon fuel tank was carrying 400-450 gallons of jet fuel. The back of the tank cracked and fell off in one piece.

"That fuel gushed onto the highway," Hall said adding the cause is under investigation. "There were no injuries."

GPVFD responded with five engines. Missoula Rural Hazmat Team also arrived on scene shortly after with three apparatus. They established a unified command.

Hall explained that while flammability is not a huge concern with jet fuel, it created a slick surface on the highway and can cause environmental damage if not contained.

In this incident, they were trying to protect a nearby spring as well as the ditches and soils off the highway. Vehicles that were driving through the spill continued to spread it.

Hall said they decided to close the highway until they could get sand to contain the spill. He requested three MDT snowplows with sand, a sweeper and a front-end loader to remove the fuel slick.

GPVFD and Missoula Rural blocked traffic on Highway 200 and on Sunset Hill Road. Traffic diverted around the spill either via the Johnsrud/Ninemile Prairie Road, Garnet Range Road, or through Helmville and Drummond.

When no sand had arrived by evening, Hall called Missoula County Public Works. They sent two snowplows from Seeley Lake with sand.

Around 8 p.m., Hall said the County trucks had adequately sanded one lane. A GPFVD engine piloted vehicles through at five miles an hour.

By 9:30 p.m., five loads of sand and gravel were spread nearly an inch thick on the spill. Around 9:45 p.m., MDT set up a 35 mile per hour speed zone on either side of the spill area noting loose gravel on road on east and westbound lanes.

GPVFD reopened Highway 200 around 10:30 p.m. allowing both lanes to travel through the area with the posted reduction in speed. All volunteer responders were clear of the scene by 11 p.m.

Hall said he heard  several complaints about the residue on vehicles that drove through the fuel spill. He recommended a citrus-based solvent to remove the jet fuel/asphalt sludge because it is non-toxic and safe on skin and automotive paint. Volunteers spent Sunday and Monday using OzzyJuice degreasing solution to clean their fire engines and personal vehicles that responded.