VIRGINIA BEACH — Almost two months ago, a city garbage truck caught on fire in the street in front of Steve Snyder’s house in Cape Story by the Sea.
Every day since, Snyder is reminded of it.
The smell of diesel fuel is apparent as you approach his home, and residue is visible on the street.
“All of this used to be white rock,” said Snyder, pointing to a parking spot in front of his house where the gravel is stained.
The smell is stronger at a nearby storm water drain that discharges into the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
“Every time it rains, you just get continued runoff,” Snyder said.
The city initially worked to contain and clean the mess, but Snyder wants more to be done as soon as possible. He’s been emailing the city’s public works department asking them to clean it up. Snyder reached out to The Virginian-Pilot last week about his concerns.
On Monday, after the newspaper inquired, Drew Lankford, a city spokesperson, confirmed that additional cleanup of Snyder’s gravel parking area, which is in the city easement, will take place “in the coming weeks.”
The cause of the Feb. 1 fire on Oak Street off of Shore Drive remains under investigation, according to the city. No one was injured, but Snyder said the heat from the fire damaged his vehicles and the flames burned some of the branches of his neighbor’s oak tree.
As the truck was engulfed in flames, its fuel tank separated from the vehicle, spilling 15 gallons of hydraulic fluid and an unknown amount of diesel fuel, according to the fire department.
The fire department used water to extinguish the fire and reported the hydraulic fluid and diesel entered a nearby storm drain. The department also applied absorbent pads to block off the storm drain.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality requires the “responsible party” to file a report if more than 25 gallons of petroleum product is spilled, which was done in this case.
The city wouldn’t be the responsible party if it wasn’t a city-owned vehicle involved. But Virginia Beach would be involved in cleanup efforts regardless because the fire department responded and the product ran off into a storm drain the city owns, Julie Laferriere, Virginia DEQ water compliance manager, wrote in an email this week.
Snyder said the substances saturated the street and the gravel parking area in front of his house, and it’s still a problem.
“The sheen continues to seep off of the road,” he said. “Every time I drive into my driveway, I track diesel fuel into my driveway.”
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On the day of the fire, Virginia Beach’s Waste Management division enlisted the city’s environmental and emergency services contractor, HEPACO, to manage the cleanup. HEPACO didn’t observe diesel fuel residue in the area during the cleanup efforts, according to the city.
Oil absorbent pads have been placed in the storm drain, and are being monitored, Lankford said.
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The Virginia DEQ has also conducted site visits to observe the city’s efforts to absorb and contain the diesel spill and is continuing to monitor the situation.
An odor of diesel fuel remained in the area where the fire occurred, and it was more noticeable when standing near the storm drain and the unpaved strip of right-of-way, wrote Patrick Regan, a DEQ field representative, in a pollution incident report March 22.
“The presence of sheening in the stormdrains and odor of diesel fuel indicates that additional cleanup methods are needed,” Regan wrote in the report. He requested the city provide an update on its plan of action.
“They shared that they will continue to change out the absorbents that are in place, and are re-engaging an environmental clean-up contractor to remove any impacted soil,” Laferriere wrote in an email.
Denis Bradshaw lives across the street from Snyder and was home with his wife and grandson when the truck caught fire. He ran outside and moved his vehicle. His house and driveway sit on higher ground than Snyder’s. And other than having to remove several branches from his tree, his property wasn’t damaged.
“We were very fortunate,” he said.
Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com