On August 27, 2020 a tanker truck rolled over and punctured its tank spilling approximately 3,200 gallons of gasoline onto the ground in Yellowstone National Park. The spill happened on the opposite side of the road from the Yellowstone River. A culvert was plugged to stop the direct discharge of gasoline into the River by the National Parks Service (NPS) and their contractors.The Park Service followed up with the RP and the RP’s insurance company for remediation.
The cleanup was overseen by the NPS, and initial activities were completed by September 17, 2020. During the cleanup, monitoring wells and extraction wells were installed in order to monitor for/recover gasoline as necessary.
On November 10th, NPS recieved results from water samples indicating benzene at 73.3 ug/L in the river. NPS reached out to EPA to schedule a call to discuss response authorities/options available. After a few discussions involving NPS and EPA (OSCs and ERT Subject Matter Experts), the Park decided to gather more data and wait until spring to decide what remedial efforts would be necessary.
Click on the image below to view an interactive dashboard containing graphs of benzene analytical results and volume of treated water at the Site.
