Contributed Photo
NHFD and DEEP crews attend to Saturday's fuel spill at Tweed.
Flights resumed at Tweed New Haven Saturday night after a daytime fuel spill closed the airport.
The spill occurred around noon, when a truck delivering jet fuel turned over, according to state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) spokesperson Paul Copleman.
The truck was carrying 5,000 gallons of Jet A fuel, according to city emergency management chief Rick Fontana. Some of that fuel “leaked on the road into a grass area,” he said.
Crews from the city fire and police departments responded to the scene, as did a DEEP crew.
In all, less than 50 gallons of fuel leaked out before the spill was contained, with “no contact with waterways,” Copleman told the Independent.
DEEP’s crew worked alongside a contractor called in to help contain the spill. The DEEP crew drilled holes in the side of the tank; the contractor brought in a vacuum truck into which it vaccumed the overturned vehicle’s fuel.
The hope originally was to reopen the airport to air service by 5 p.m. It ended uptaking longer to reopen the airport — but by 8:45 p.m. Avelo flights were resuming, Fontana reported. He said the mayor was preparing a message to phone to East Shore neighbors to alert them that planes would arrive later than usual in order “to get so many people home tonight” on delayed flights. Click here to check on the status of Avelo flights. Eleven flights in all were delayed Saturday because of the spill.
Fontana said Saturday evening that it was not yet known why the fuel truck had turned over.
Kudos to airport management in taking swift action to contain the spill.
It should be noted that none of the fuel found its way to Tuttle Brook.
But, knowing Tweed's detractors, they will portray this as "Exxon Valdez II," while turning a blind eye to the emissions of the tens of thousands of vehicles that traverse I-95 over Lake Saltonstall, a major source of the region's drinking water.
And in contrast, 95 and 91 have seen a greater number of spills than has Tweed.
Moreover, one would have a hard time finding any recorded indignation when one million tons of raw sewage washed up on the beaches of East Haven and Branford just two summers ago.
But hey, it's Tweed-New Haven Airport, which is almost always held to a different, HIGHER standard.