Bad-weather car accidents are dumping diesel fuel into Sacramento storm drains

Just before 3 a.m. on a torrential Saturday in January, John Dee Hawkins lost control of his semitrailer, authorities say.

The combination vehicle veered into a concrete wall that separates opposing lanes of traffic and bounced to a stop near the right side of the highway, just north of the P Street exit. A ruptured sidesaddle tank hemorrhaged approximately 50 gallons of diesel fuel onto the roadway, and was swept by the heavy rains into a nearby storm drain.

The January 16 accident is one of five small-time hazardous-waste wrecks that the California Highway Patrol has responded to this year so far. They take an environmental toll, say environmental officials.

“It only takes a little bit,” said Mary Fricke, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

According to an SN&R review of communications between the CHP and Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, vehicular accidents have dumped approximately 380 gallons of diesel fuel and 20 gallons of motor oil onto roadways, into the soil and, in two cases, storm drains.

That’s already 37 percent more diesel fuel than was spilled during all of 2015.

As much as 125 gallons of diesel fuel have entered storm drains, all in the city of Sacramento, compared with only 20 gallons last year, also in the city.

Diesel is a lighter oil that can be cleaned up effectively when spilled, Fish and Wildlife says. But it can persist when it gets into soil or sediment, and impact the food chain. Almost all storm drains empty directly into rivers, creeks and bays without any type of water treatment. “So a little bit could actually go a long way,” Fricke told SN&R.

According to a CHP report to the county, the January 16 accident may not have a lasting environmental impact, since heavy rain flow would have helped dilute whatever fuel entered the storm drain. But, CHP Capt. E.L. Robinson added in a cover letter, “It is possible that residual fuel remained and [possibly] entered the river, which could cause an adverse effect on public health or safety.”

That’s what happened 10 days prior, when another semitrailer lost control during a rainstorm and hit the center wall on the northbound side of I-5, north of Capitol Mall Drive. This time, heavy rains fanned as much as 75 gallons of diesel fuel from a punctured sidesaddle tank into a storm drain.

County spokeswoman Brenda Bongiorno says the storm drain connects to a pump station that releases its contents into the Sacramento River, but says the rain would have diluted the oil’s impact.

Fricke said that if the spill occurs in an environmentally sensitive area, “even a small amount can be bad.” She requested that the public report polluters and poachers through the department’s new confidential smartphone application, CalTIP.

Not every hazardous material investigation involves petroleum products.

Last year, the CHP responded to the Franchise Tax Board office in Rancho Cordova after employees opened a package containing “a suspicious brown material.”

According to the CHP report, five employees who came in contact with the material complained of symptoms like skin and eye irritation, nausea and headaches, leading to a partial evacuation of 50 employees.

Multiple agencies responded to the scene, and the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department sent in personnel in hazmat gear to run tests on the material, the results of which a CHP report summarizes: “The material was determined to be animal feces and was discarded in FTB’s 26 trash dumpster.”