Foreman: ‘It was just a freak accident’
Alfonzo Nevarez got a call Wednesday afternoon that no job site foreman wants to get.
“Our fuel truck busted a filter,” Nevarez said from a New Design Construction company truck at the spill scene Wednesday night.
Nevarez said the Commerce City based company was laying a new sewer line at the job site next to Macky Auditorium on the CU campus, and as one worker prepared to leave around noon Wednesday he noticed the leaking fuel coming from a truck parked on the street.
“It was just a freak accident,” Nevarez said.
A passer-by spotted the diesel fuel leaking into the Boulder Creek from an area just steps west of the creek’s 17th Street overpass at about 2:40 p.m. Wednesday and called police.
Nevarez was given a summons for a court date in two to three weeks.
CU Police Commander Brad Wiesley said New Design Contruction will be given a seperate summons in one to two days.
“There is corporate responsibility as well as individual responsibility,” Wiesley said.
New Design Construction has already hired independent contractor Custom Environmental. The company plans to clean up the spill into the night Wednesday.
Company workers at the scene said the clean up process would take several hours.
Hazardous Materials Specialist Mark D. Lapham from the CU Division of Environmental Health and Safety said the spill will not affect human health.
“The drinking water is all supplied by the city,” Lapham said at the scene Wednesday night.
Lapham said drinking any of the contaminated water could be harmful to pets, but that they would likely avoid the water due to its gasoline-like smell.
“If a dog were drinking right out of a puddle, it could be dangerous, but it’s not something they would be attracted to – it’s something they would be repelled by,” Lapham said.
He said his department has not heard any complaints from residents who live on the banks of the Boulder Creek.
Contact Campus Press Copy Editor Jimmy Himes at james.himes@thecampuspress.com
