A pickup truck towing a tractor was removed form the Methow River Thursday (Sept. 17) near Halterman’s Hole south of Twisp. The driver was rescued and transported to a local hospital.
State responds to petroleum spillage
A man was pulled from the Methow River Thursday (Sept. 17) after he drove his GMC pickup pulling a tractor into the river around 2:30 p.m., near Halterman’s Hole off Twisp-Carlton Road, according to officials.
Okanogan County Search and Rescue responded with its high-angle team to access the river from a 40-foot embankment, and the truck’s driver was transported to a local hospital, Aero Methow Executive Director Derek Van Marter said.
The driver’s dog was rescued, too.
“We took the individual’s dog back to the house,” Van Marter said.
Okanogan County Fire District 6 deployed a boom around the vehicle after a petroleum sheen was spotted near the crash, county Emergency Management Director Maurice Goodall said.
Goodall drove “a couple thousand feet” downstream and observed that the sheen had spread.
“It wasn’t really that much. A little bit’s too much; I’m just saying, it wasn’t a huge thing,” Goodall said. “The boom slowed it down.”
The state Department of Ecology also responded with a spill-response team.
“An unknown amount of diesel and gasoline was on board at the time of the crash, some of which was captured by sorbent boom,” Ecology Communications Manager Anna Izenman said. “The truck was removed from the river late Thursday with oversight from Ecology and cleanup contractor GrayMar.”
Pulling the vehicle out of the water posed a challenge, as the pickup was hauling a tractor on a flatbed trailer. But Randy’s Towing managed to remove the truck and trailer all at once by hooking onto the tractor, Goodall said.
“Once it came out, the sheen dissipated,” he said.
Ecology flew a drone downstream of the crash site on Friday but didn’t identify further signs of contamination, Izenman said.
“Diesel and gasoline are both lightweight oils that dissipate and evaporate quickly, but several water samples were retrieved and sent for testing as a precaution,” she added.
A small amount of contaminated soil on the riverbank was removed for disposal, as was debris left in the river from the truck and trailer, Izenman said.
Local officials were on the scene until 8:45 p.m.
“Those kinds of calls take a really long time,” Van Marter said, citing the incident as a reason why Aero Methow needs two ambulances on call at all times — something that would be available next year, if voters approve a new property tax in November of 10 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
“We ended up having several other calls during that time,” Van Marter said. “This is another reason we are going to the public this fall for the levy.”
