Weather slows clean up of Walker River oil spill

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2001 | 10:15 a.m.

The rough, remote terrain of the river in the Sierra Nevada combined with ice in the river was slowing efforts to clean-up the 3,600 gallons of oil spilled Dec. 30 in the fatal crash of a tanker truck on California Highway 182.

About 1,000 gallons of oil has now been removed from the river. State and federal crews recording the deaths of the fish and wildlife reported Monday they had recovered 13 fish, an oiled bird and two oiled beavers.

Officials for the California Department of Fish and Game's Office of Spill Prevention and Response said there was no estimate of when the oil spill area and adjacent habitat would be fully restored.

About 50 clean-up personnel from a variety of federal and state agencies in California and Nevada were working Monday to contain the spill in the waters along the state border.

Clean-up crews have removed 220 cubic yards of oily soils and an additional 4,200 gallons of oil liquid, the spill prevention office said in a statement Monday afternoon.

The river is popular for trout fishing. It's also a water source for ranchers in Nevada's Lyon County.

Heath Curten, 23, of Bakersfield, was en route from his hometown to Yerington, Nev., to deliver oil for power generation when the accident occurred.

The trucking firm, Advanced Fuel Filtration Systems of Bakersfield, has taken responsibility for the accident and hired Sparks, Nev.-based H20 Environmental Resources to handle the cleanup.

The California Department of Fish and Game is the lead government agency involved. Others involved include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.