Fuel spill impacts fish hatchery
A 1,000-gallon diesel fuel spill has contaminated a fish hatchery in the Washington County town of Columbia Falls, threatening the viability of more than 100,000 salmon eggs.
The diesel leaked from a truck at Foss Construction Co. overnight Monday and deposited fuel into Pleasant River, which reached Pleasant River Hatchery, the Bangor Daily News reported. Hatchery Director Dwayne Shaw told the paper that the fuel has compromised a major research project and could have ruined 135,000 hatching salmon eggs in a laboratory. The salmon have been raised in the hatchery for two years as part of a project documenting the effects of acid rain and were about to be released. The fuel also entered smelt spawning habitat in the river and could jeopardize millions of smelt eggs, according to the paper.
The Department of Environmental Protection is overseeing cleanup of the spill, which will take weeks and cost between $15,000 and $20,000. Foss Construction Co. is funding the cleanup through insurance.
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