700-gallon fuel spill in Isleton prompts extra Sacramento County groundwater monitoring

Sacramento County public health monitors were keeping watch Friday over groundwater soil contamination in Isleton, more than a week after hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel were spilled in a truck crash in the Delta community.

Officials from the county’s environmental management and public health offices trace the contamination to a July 11 wreck on the dry side of the levee, near the 13000 block of Isleton Road.

Crews began cleaning up the spill July 12, removing soil down to the water table where they found signs of groundwater contamination.

A mobile refueler spilled more than 700 gallons of red-dyed diesel in the July 11 crash. Clean-up crews who spotted the spilled fuel in the soil reported it Tuesday to county environmental officers, Sacramento County officials said in a Friday statement.

The spilled fuel poses no risk to residents, Sacramento County officials said Friday, but water systems near the spill site have been notified and California State Water Resource Board officials are recommending yearly routine monitoring by county environmental officials — up from once every three years — for at least three years “out of an abundance of caution,” Sacramento County officials said Friday.

Darrell Smith

The Sacramento Bee

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Darrell Smith is a local reporter for The Sacramento Bee. He joined The Bee in 2006 and previously worked at newspapers in Palm Springs, Colorado Springs and Marysville. Smith was born and raised at Beale Air Force Base and lives in Elk Grove.