Residents of Lewisburg get water Monday morning at the State Fairgrounds in Fairlea because of a diesel spill in Alvin.
LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Mark Carver’s cell phone rang at 10:30 p.m. Friday, to be told about a diesel spill on Anthony Creek headed for the Greenbrier River and eventually Lewisburg’s intake water line in Caldwell.
The director of the town’s public works department said shutting down the water plant was the only option for him.
When extensive water test results came back Monday night negative of diesel fuel contamination, Greenbrier County dodged serious troubles, said Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the West Virginia Institute at West Virginia University.
He explained diesel fuel, of which about 4,000 gallons leaked into a tributary of the Greenbrier River, contains the highly toxic compound benzene, which generally allows diesel fuel to float on water.
“It is not an overstatement to say water and diesel fuel do not mix well,” he said. “Not an overstatement at all.”
What had the potential to be harmful to the environment during this spill was the effect cold weather has on diesel fuel.
Cold weather, Ziemkiewicz said, allows the breaking up of molecules, which then can sink. Diesel fuel normally coagulates at minus 17.5 degrees, but higher temperatures can and will break the compound into molecules that will sink and can cause great damage to the environment.
If benzene had entered the county’s intake water system, areas of Greenbrier County would have been without water for more than a few days…
