San Antonio River treated after fuel spill

SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio River Authority and Fire Department hazmat crews were working again Saturday to rid the San Antonio River of spilled jet fuel from a South Side refinery, the second incident since March.

Fire Department spokesman Christian Bove said the department was alerted to a possible spill in a tributary of the river around 9:30 a.m.

At some point during the night, there was a spill at the Calumet Specialty Products Partners refinery at 7811 S. Presa St. as workers were loading jet fuel into a rail car, said SARA spokesman Stephen Schauer.

“They knew a spill had occurred, but they thought it was contained to the site,” Schauer said.

Saturday morning, a pedestrian on the Mission Reach noticed a fuel smell near the river and alerted SARA.

Of the approximately 1,100 gallons of fuel spilled at the refinery, about 100 gallons went off the property, Bove said.

Schauer said Calumet estimated that one barrel, about 42 gallons of fuel, leaked into a creek connected to the San Antonio River. Still, about 50 yards of the river required treatment.

Schauer said the spill was the second from the Calumet refinery in five weeks. In early March, a larger spill shut down Mission Parkway to bikers and pedestrians for more than a week, and the paddling trail for several days. In that incident, an estimated 6,552 gallons spilled into a creek on the property just south of Espada Park.

Schauer also said there have been a few fires at the Calumet facility that have resulted in contamination of portions of the river.

“We have high expectations of how safety and reaction to these types of accidents should be done,” he said, adding he hopes this incident will be a wake-up call to the refinery, which has not met those expectations. “We want them to be good stewards to our river.”

Mission Parkway and Southeast Military Drive will be closed through the weekend as crews clean up the spill, though hike and bike trails are expected to remain open.

Paddle recreation areas south of Espada Park were closed Saturday, but were expected to reopen Sunday.

mdwilson@express-news.net

Twitter: @MDWilsonSA