Fuel spill in southern Boone County closes Tom Bass Road

By: Anna Sago, Columbia Missourian
Tom Bass Road was closed for several hours Saturday, March 8th after a tanker truck overturned and spilled more than 1,000 gallons of fuel.
Southern Boone County Fire Protection District crews responded to the scene around 5:30 a.m. Saturday after a tanker truck headed south on Tom Bass Road crashed into a ditch and overturned, Deputy Chief Colin Wright said. The driver was not injured.

After the leak was discovered, hazardous materials teams from the Columbia Fire Department, the Boone County Fire Protection District and the Southern Boone County Fire Protection District patched the leaks. The tanker contained 7,500 to 8,500 gallons of gasoline. Wright said somewhere between 1,000 and 4,000 gallons of fuel leaked but that the rest of the fuel was recovered by Midland Transports, which owns the truck.

Wright said it would take days to clean up the spill. Soil will need to be stripped from the area so that the gasoline can be drained before the soil is replaced.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources and University of Missouri EMS crews also responded. Columbia Regional Airport, located a little more than 2 miles from the site, was on standby in case of an explosion, but Wright said the threat had been eliminated as most fuel has been drained from the scene.

This article was originally published by the Columbia Missourian and is re-printed with permission.