BY ROBERT L. BAKER

Wyoming County Press Examiner

Around 500 gallons of fuel oil spilled into Burdick Creek, after a truck drove off a bridge in Dimock Township Thursday afternoon.

Jason Rinker, assistant Springville Fire Company chief, said that around 1:30 p.m. a home delivery truck from Burning Bush Petroleum of Nicholson ran off a bridge just north of where Carter Road intersects with the Dimock-to-Nicholson Road (SR3023).

Rinker said the truck driver, who was not identified, was okay.

According to Susquehanna County EMA Operations/Training Officer Scott Aylesworth, the truck had only minutes before made a home delivery on Carter Road.

He noted that only one of three compartments of the fuel truck had been breached.

Mark Carmon, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said Thursday that the spill seemed to be isolated but DEP would return in a couple of days to do some follow up.

On Tuesday, Carmon said a water quality specialist had been out to the site and walked the length of Burdick Creek to its confluence with Meshoppen Creek.

He said that for a little over a quarter of a mile there was a fish kill, but "fortunately" there was no shimmering or staining where the tributary meets Meshoppen Creek.

Carmon said that booms and pads put in place to contain the spill about 2,000 feet from the accident site would remain in place for the time being.

He expected an aquatic biologist would do a follow-up to analyze the long-term impact that the spill could have on aquatic life.

Richard Seymour who lives downstream where the series of booms were put in place, said that it is tough to see the damage, but he gives the emergency crews great credit for holding the spill back.

Seymour who is presently being supplied with fresh water by Cabot because of damage to groundwater implied in a consent order last year, said he is heartsick over his little bit of nature where he settled in 1992 ad has a garlic farm with his wife.

"It's like we're in the middle of a war, and I'm losing on all sides," he said. "I don't know what to tell the grandkids when they want to play in the creek."

Carmon said that workers for Charles Gayson Excavating and Environmental Services were on scene for the cleanup effort which would be paid for by Burning Bush.

And, they continue to monitor the cleanup.

United Fire Company of Montrose assisted Springville at the scene of Thursday's accident.

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