Crayfish victims of tanker explosion

Friday, Aug. 11, 2000 | 11:06 a.m.

Unleaded gasoline from the dual tanker truck explosion and fire last week ran into the Flamingo and Las Vegas washes, apparently killing thousands of crayfish, state officials said Thursday.

After 8,700 gallons of gasoline spewed from a tandem tank truck that crashed and overturned on Aug. 2 at U.S. 95 and Flamingo Road, the Clark County Fire Department responded and installed temporary berms to prevent further fuel spills.

County officials immediately reported the spill to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection because the washes lead into Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's major source of drinking water.

The state environmental officials, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Nevada Division of Wildlife are investigating whether the crayfish died from direct exposure to the fuel or from chemicals locked up in the soils and unleashed along the washes.

An unknown amount of the gasoline got into the sewer system and entered the wash, said Brenda Pohlmann, a scientist with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

Along a one-mile stretch of the wash before it enters Lake Mead, investigators found thousands of dead crayfish, she said.

The county's Fire Department responded as quickly and responsibly as possible, Pohlmann said. The county flushed clear water down the sewer pipes to dilute the spilled fuel.

"The county prevented the situation from becoming worse than it was," Pohlmann said.

"It smelled bad," she said, "but not as much fuel as we suspected got into the wash." Much of the gasoline burned up in the fire.

National Park Service biologist Bill Burke said that downstream users of the lake need to be informed immediately about the pollution incident.

The community of Lake Las Vegas and the Park Service, which sees 10 million visitors a year boating and fishing on Lake Mead, need better communications with other agencies, Burke said.

Allen Biaggi, director of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, said communications between agencies and states are vital for preventing pollution of drinking water sources.

The county and state agencies will meet within a month to determine how to improve communications during a hazardous transportation crash, members of the Lake Mead Water Quality Forum learned Thursday.

The water authority does not know the background levels of petroleum products in the wash, SNWA scientist Kim Zikmund said. The water authority will study the crayfish, sediments and water, she said.