Train clips tanker truck on Tacoma’s Tideflats. Here’s what we know about fuel spill

Nearly 400 gallons of ethanol spilled in Tacoma’s Tideflats near the Thea Foss Waterway on Tuesday after a train clipped a fuel truck, according to authorities.

City Manager Elizabeth Pauli told the Tacoma City Council on Tuesday, Aug. 13, that the spill prompted the evacuation of the Center for Urban Waters, 326 E. D St.

Environmental Compliance staff and the Tacoma Fire Department (TFD) headed to the scene, she noted. The U.S. Coast Guard and Washington Department of Ecology were responsible for clean-up.

No injuries were reported.

Jasmin Adams with the state’s ecology department told The News Tribune that the incident occurred in the 500 block of East D Street. After plugging the leak, the leftover fuel was transferred to another vehicle.

“We have no reports of the fuel reaching the waterway, but TFD and the Department of Ecology are monitoring the situation throughout the cleanup process,” Adams said via email.

Efforts by The News Tribune to reach the Coast Guard for comment were not immediately successful.

Fire Department spokesperson Chelsea Shepherd told The News Tribune that anywhere from zero to 20 gallons of ethanol could have hit the waterway. A nearby stormwater drain extending into the Sound was flushed out.

“We worked hard to capture all of it, so there was not a huge impact,” she said. “There wasn’t a huge environmental impact. There wasn’t a huge residential impact because it was a very industrial area.”

Shepherd told The News Tribune that first responders arrived a little after noon Tuesday.

“We had heard that a tanker semi-truck had been hit by a train,” Shepherd said. “As it turned out, it was not as dramatic as it sounded.”

Shepherd said that initial estimates put the leaked-ethanol total at 1,200-1,600 gallons, but it wound up being around 394.

The Fire Department was there for seven or eight hours to make sure the spill was contained and cleaned up, and the HAZMAT team was deployed, she said.

Authorities quickly worked to flush out the affected drain to ensure “that there was minimal impact, if any, to the Thea Foss Waterway,” Shepherd said.

Clean-up efforts wrapped at around 8 p.m. Tuesday, Shepherd said.