On Monday of last week, Greenwood County Road and Bridge employees came across a hazmat oil spill near Hamilton while doing routine checks of low water crossings.
The oil spill was located in the 2600 block of W Road, near Hamilton.
Emergency Management Director Levi Vinson shared with Greenwood County Commissioners on Monday of this week that a hazmat oil spill incident had occurred last week and discussed the affiliated procedures. Vinson told commissioners that in this process, two people must report it: the spiller and local Emergency Management.
Once the county has been notified, they have to assess the situation and determine a response. In the given situation, the spill was in water and the county responsibility was to mitigate the immediate effects: do whatever can be done to stop the spread. Once achieved, the state takes over. Vinson told commissioners that in Kansas, whoever spills is responsible for remediation.
In discussion of this, Vinson shared that all remaining supplies on hand were used to stop the chemicals/ oil from traveling down the waterway. Vinson added that there had been a spill last year on the same creek where a portion of materials had been used. He explained that materials are housed at the Eureka Fire Department as they respond for these incidents and the county would need to look at replenishing materials as they must have those on hand. Vinson reported that last week’s incident identified had been a crude oil spill in relation to a tank battery on an oil lease. According to Vinson, this had initially looked intentional, but it was later discovered that oil had been spilled up stream. He told commissioners that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still active at the site and added that EPA does not typically take over in situations regarding creeks like this. At this time, Sheriff Heath Samuels advised commissioners that he believed they had deployed to the scene because immediate action had not been taken by the given party; this had been ignored initially and from his understanding, the spill had happened before the freeze this winter. Reportedly, a pipe came off and created a river of oil through the draw which went into the nearby creek. Sheriff Samuels noted that this wasn’t taken care of and wasn’t reported. Following the freeze that occurred, this was then found.
As of Monday afternoon, additional details were unavailable. The Eureka Herald reached out to EPA but as of presstime had not received a response from the EPA.
