Aniak suffers another fuel spill; three homes evacuated

A gasoline spill discovered Monday at a tank farm in Aniak led to the evacuation of three nearby homes and a one-day closure of the village school and post office, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said in a report Tuesday.
The school and post office reopened Tuesday, and the residents were able to return home, the DEC said. Several roads in the area were closed initially as well; River Avenue remains closed as a precaution.
Gasoline is an explosive and fire hazard and can be dangerous for health if its vapors are inhaled.
Aniak is on the south bank of the Kuskokwim River, some 317 miles west of Anchorage.
None of the fuel seeped from a containment area at the tank farm, which is operated by Crowley Petroleum Distribution, the DEC said.
Crowley estimated the spill at nearly 2,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline. The capacity of the leaking tank is 21,000 gallons; it held 6,500 gallons when gauged last week, according to figures provided to the DEC by Crowley.
Volunteer firefighters applied a water-based foam to the containment area to reduce explosive vapors from the gasoline. Crowley hired response contractors, which focused Tuesday on transferring thousands of gallons of fuel remaining in the leaking tank to another tank, said Jim Butler, a spokesman for Crowley.
As of Tuesday afternoon, about 6,000 gallons of a fuel-water mix had been pumped from the secondary containment area to another tank, the DEC report said. The water is from snow melt, Butler said.
The fuel apparently leaked from a small hole in the tank, Butler said. The spill is under investigation, and the cleanup continues.
This is the second spill in less than two months at a tank farm operated by Crowley in Aniak. The first one was discovered March 8 at a different tank farm, two miles down river from the current spill. Just less than 7,000 gallons of aircraft fuel spilled when a tank valve was left partially open, the DEC said.