Crews Work Through The Night To Clean Up Gasoline Spill In Eagan
EAGAN, Minn. (WCCO) -- The cleanup of a gasoline spill in Eagan is into its second day.
Crews are doing everything possible to keep the gas from causing any environmental problems.
It happened Monday when another group collecting soil samples ruptured the pipeline. More than 500 barrels -- about 21,000 gallons -- of gasoline gushed onto the street and into a nearby storm sewer.
Crews from Magellan, the company that operate the gasoline pipeline, worked through the night to contain and cleanup the area impacted by the spill. The pipeline runs from Rosemount to Minneapolis.
Magellan workers flooded the area around the Eagan Lifetime Fitness to dig up the contaminated soil in and around where the pipeline was struck.
"Some of the product came across the parking lot as it came down from the pipeline," Thomas Byers of Magellan said. "We put the sand down, basically, to stop the product and act as an absorbent, and as you can see, that sand is in the process of being picked up. It, along with the contaminated soil, will be taken to an approved disposal center for proper handling."
But it's not just the soil they're cleaning out.
"Some of the product did get into the storm sewer systems," Byers said. "We had vac trucks all night long picking up that product, cleaning up the storm sewers."
Only members of Lifetime Fitness and an adjacent business were evacuated because of the spill. Crews spent time decontaminating vehicles left behind by people who were forced to leave.
'There is not much risk to the public at this point," Aaron Machtemes of the Eagan Police Department said. "It's more of an environmental concern, getting the gasoline cleaned up from the area."
Magellan crews are using handheld and stationary air monitors to test air quality. Right now, they say no residential areas have been impacted.
At around 6:20 p.m., Magellan said Thomas Center Lane and Thomas Lake Road were reopened.