Fuel From Truck Crash Spills Into Aqueduct
A big-rig truck involved in a traffic accident went off a remote two-lane road and spilled an unknown amount of diesel fuel into the California Aqueduct in the northwestern corner of Los Angeles County, authorities said.
The tractor-trailer collided with another vehicle on California 138, three miles east of the Golden State Highway near Gorman about 9:53 p.m., said Officer Rick Serrano of the California Highway Patrol.
Serrano said the tractor-trailer was apparently not a fuel truck but was leaking diesel from its “saddle tanks” into the aqueduct, which provides water to the several Southern California water purveyors, including the giant Metropolitan Water District.
“There is at least one injury but we have no details,” Serrano said. “We’re not sure if the truck is in the aqueduct or if it’s nearby and leaking in there.”
The aqueduct is equipped with a series of gates which can stop the flow of the water in case of emergencies, but it could not immediately be determined whether such measures had been taken.
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