only a couple weeks ago, we had a major spill of diesel fuel at the mountain resort. fortunately i spotted a large puddle of the red liquid, unfortunately too late. it seems several things contributed to the accident and contamination of the main stream running down the mountain.
there are two fuel pumps connected to the tank, only one of which we use.
the second was active, but the hose had been removed to replace a broken hose on the other pump. a plug was not, it seems, installed on that pump.
someone would have to climb on top of the unused pump to take a fuel level reading on the tank, and without a fuel nozzle in the slot, the pump’s lever could be kicked to the ”on” position. only when a snowcat operator turns on the electricity to the pumps would any fuel dump out of the unrestricted pump.
the fueling procedures regarding turning electricity ”off” and ”on” had become lax and the pumps usually stayed ”on” all night long. the spill might have been detected sooner, but a demo snowcat was parked (for no apparent good reason) on the fuel pad and blocked a view of the second pump and any potential spill. also, much of the fuel was lost downstream because of somewhat recent landscaping which involved footing drains around the base of the fuel tank. some of the fuel was caught on the pad and drained into a water/fuel separator, the majority went into the footing drains.
blame has been spread because of what can be regarded as a grave comedy of errors, and environmental clean up teams were brought in and are still working.
numerous employees (including myself) were scolded with official company communications, and new fueling procedures were put in place.
my clothes and boots still reek of diesel fuel from the hours i spent shovelling diesel contaminated snow and squeegeeing fuel into the separator drain.
many potential summer employees called in that they would not be looking to work with the resort because of this environmental snafu.
i was questioned by the sherriff and saw the inside of a police cruiser (the front for a change), but only as part of a fact-gathering investigation. there is still a slight chance that this was sabotage in protest of the inevitable expansion project the mountain is beginning, though i have my doubts.