LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's been more than a week since diesel leaked from a storage tank at the Love's Truck Stop in Memphis.
From the Love's Truck Stop in Memphis to Silver Creek about a mile down the road, crews have been working to clean up diesel that leaked from an underground storage tank at the truck stop.
Officials with Clark County Emergency Management said it's going to take a while to clean up the spill that was first reported Feb. 10.
"They found the source of the leak, but with the recent rainfalls and things like that, they're starting to find a little bit more that has been saturated in the ground for quite some time," Gavan Hebner, Clark County Emergency Management director, said.
Getting some answers about the diesel spill in Memphis today. This boom is trapping the debris. Crews will then come and bag it up to get it all out of Silver Creek @WDRBNews pic.twitter.com/T1FLzFGndz
— Christie Battista WDRB (@CBattistaTV) February 20, 2022
A contracted cleanup company is using oil absorbers to manually get the fuel out of the water.
Other tactics like booms, which cleanup debris in the creek, are being used. From there, workers will bag it up and get it out of the water.
"They're just collecting any residual surface product and they're just working that back towards the truck stop up here," Hebner said.
He said it may look like a lot has been removed, but all of that is a combination of diesel and water.
It’s hard to see, but this guy is using oil absorbers to clean up the water not too far from the Love’s Truck Stop pic.twitter.com/xcTQxhBfKh
— Christie Battista WDRB (@CBattistaTV) February 20, 2022
"The rumors that have been probably stirred up about what all has been collected is probably how much water has been collected that they've skimmed off the top with the product," he said. "So there may be 280,000 gallons of water that had been collected, but not all that is 280,000 gallons of diesel fuel so it could be much less than that."
Indiana Department of Environmental Management said there's currently no threat to wildlife or humans.
A look at the diesel spill in Memphis, Indiana on Saturday, Feb. 20.
"They have not located any fish kill," Hebner said. "They have teams out monitoring consistently throughout the night, and they're reporting back everyday. We get a situation report update twice a day, so we're staying in constant contact with them. The IDEM folk are working with the contracting companies to really watch the wildlife impact."
Workers are expected to be in the area for "quite some time."
Hebner said IDEM wants to restore everything back to how it was before the leak.
The state is working with a farmer to determine a cause of death for two cows that died near the spill. They could not say if it's connected with the leak.
WDRB reached out to Love's Truck Stop for comment but has not heard back.
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