Freak Incident, reefer tank dropping fuel.

Years ago, most old timers agreed, and bosses encouraged, if the tank springs a leak, jam a rag in there, and GET THE HE11 OUT OF THERE! As you can see, cleanup can cost a fortune, even though, what you spilled pales in comparison to what Exxon spills hourly. 20 gallons, big deal, more is spilled at the Pilot pumps everyday, what do you think those garbage cans of oil dry are for,,but the EPA has no sense of humor on those matters. You don't want to deal with the EPA, like the guy on Ghostbusters.

 

Was what you already paid the total bill? I'm not wishing you any bad luck and I hope you're done but you got off really light.
One of our tankers was cited at Truckee for a hazardous material leak when all it was was a valve on an empty diesel trailer. It was dripping one drop every three minutes...CHP timed it. The driver took the packing nut up a quarter turn and it quit. Still got the citation though. I went to court on it and the judge threw it out when he saw the pictures I took. Still had to pay court costs. The clerk of the court told me that she'd seen fines running in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for haz mat spills.
When we figured the delay time for the truck when it should have been earning, the cost of the driver's wages for standing around...plus a motel room because he ran out of hours in Truckee...plus my time to drive down there and spend all day waiting to go to court...we spent close to five thousand dollars. For one drop every three minutes.

 

“there was only 5-10 gallons in there I was on my way to get fuel” is always the correct answer

did a lot of environmental when I was company, I’m all for clean air and water but most of the stuff like this is just a money grab

 

Early 90's ran transportation for a short time for a clean up company.

At that time they still left the filled drums at the site.
So the response crew of 3 guys with a spill truck at $.$$ per hour plus the materials [pads, absorbe, drums, etc] for just the cleanup.

Then we send a 6 wheeler to get the drums @ $125.00 each plus $125.00 to do the manifest with a mileage charge to haul the drums to the TSD [transfer,storage and disposal] who, when prompted by the monthly state inspection, needed to dispose of the dirty dirt.

They took fork lifts with clamp that could rotate to empty the drums into one of our dump trailers to be run to the land fill in Ohio where it was dumpped for $20.00 a TON.

Well, they did need to outfit 2 fork lifts and pay two guys to empty the drums, which were also recyled, so yeah, money grab is a good description.

PIG has good stuff but a simple can of plug N dike in the glove box would handle a lot of fuel tank leaks. incude a few sizes of conical wood plugs for larger holes can help too.

 

Suggestion:

Since the fairing funnels the airflow would a mudflap split long ways make a good deflector mounted crossways in front of the fuel tank?

 

If it's vandalism the insurance should pay the total cost and probably the lost day of revenue.
3 trailers for one week doesn't sound like natural causes for me.

 

Well everyone knows my story on hazmat leaks.

 

Don’t you just love it when a Penske box truck drops its DRIVESHAFT and ruins your good day??

 

$2,500 sounds like a bargain for the cleanup. Usually a smaller spill will get into 5 figures.
Not only does the cleanup crew have to remove all contamination, they also have to pay to get rid of it as hazardous waste.