Originally Published By WIBW
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – A broken water pipe at Topeka’s Goodyear plant sparked a chain of events that led to hazardous materials crews working to block a spill from flowing down Soldier Creek into the Kansas River.
A Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment spokesperson said the agency’s Spill Hotline got a call just before noon Monday that the broken pipe flooded a basement area at the plant. It allow approximately 50 gallons of hydraulic oil to flow from an oil-water separator into a floor drain, which discharges into Soldier Creek.
Goodyear notified KDHE, and had already contracted with a haz-mat response company out of Olathe. The company used absorbent booms and vacuum trucks to get visible oil off the surface, and intercept the rest of the oil before it reached the Kansas River, which is the water source for several communities downstream. They worked into the evening hours in the area of the creek along Highway 24, just west of the K-4 interchange.
KDHE says the operation was a success. They say no oil reached the river, and no public water supplies were threatened.
