Fort Smith officials are continuing remediation efforts weeks after a diesel fuel spill was reported at Creekmore Park, the city administrator said.
The spill is of low environmental concern because officials were able to determine where the fuel stopped in a drainage ditch, said Travis Cooper of Sebastian County Emergency Management and Public Safety. An estimated 200-250 gallons of fuel, which was used to power a train at Creekmore, spilled. The spill was reported by a member of the general public Jan. 20.
The city hired an environmental remediation service to help with the remediation and ensure that all laws and procedures were followed and everything was properly reported to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, City Administrator Carl Geffken said.
City staff was supervised by the remediation service but did the labor instead of paying for the remediation service for labor, Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said.
The city also used one of the company's trucks for the remediation work as to not potentially contaminate the city's equipment, Geffken said. The city has not yet received a bill from the company.
The staff removed contaminated soil where the fuel was spilled and removed two trees because the fuel had gotten into their roots, Geffken said.
"It gets inspected every day by our staff to see if there's even a little sheen on top of the water that's out there because if it is, that requires further remediation," he said.