Diesel spills into Nacogdoches Native Plant Center

Fuel leak at North Street gas station makes way to Lanana Creek tributary

NACOGDOCHES — Diesel fuel spilled at Rudy's No. 11 station on North Street Tuesday afternoon leaked into a tributary of Lanana Creek inside the SFA Pineywoods Native Plant Center, threatening botanical species there.

Fire Chief Keith Kiplinger said the fire department contained the fuel to the single tributary inside the plant center before it contaminated Lanana Creek. Although he could not say exactly how much fuel had been spilled, Kiplinger said it was not an especially large amount.

Christy Wooten/The Daily Sentinel (enlarge photo) A representative from the Denny Oil Company stands in a small creek, which runs through the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, after a diesel fuel spill contaminated the water. The company set buoys to stop the flow of fuel before it reached Lanana Creek.

Denny Oil Company, who spilled the fuel while filling an underground tank at the service station, responded to the scene to formulate a cleanup plan, Kiplinger said. As the owner of the spilled fuel, Denny Oil must hire or provide hazardous materials cleanup services and perform water quality testing to ensure a total cleanup.

A representative of the plant center, who asked not to be named because he did not know if he was allowed to speak to the media, said the spill was a "significant" environmental concern.

"We tout environmental education, and we've got diesel flowing into the woods, he said. "They apparently didn't know it was leaking into our bottomland hardwood forest."

Matthew Stoff contributed to this report.