Driver is OK, but tanker leaks 14,000 gallons of LNG
A semi-tractor truck pulling a tanker trailer wrecked Monday on a curvy stretch of the Dalton Highway about 250 miles north of Fairbanks.
The tanker contained 14,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas from an LNG plant near Deadhorse. It was headed for the Interior Gas Utility’s massive tank storage and vaporization facility in Fairbanks.
The public utility is owned by the Fairbanks North Star Borough and is part of a partnership formed three years ago to truck gas down from the North Slope.
Fairbanks-based Middle Fork Logistics holds the IGU's trucking contract.
Alaska State Troopers say they got a report of the wreck at milepost 126 of the Dalton on Monday morning. A Trooper dispatch said the truck driver wasn’t injured, but officers cited him for failure to exercise due care to avoid the collision.
The state Department of Transportation closed the highway for several hours.
The tanker was punctured in the rollover and released its entire load of LNG, says Kimberley Maher. She’s an on-scene coordinator with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. And she says the LNG was released as a vapor and dissipated.
“The big concern was ensuring traffic in the area was safe,” she said, “and so DOT did need to shut down the road and monitored that. And once the LNG was released, it was a gas and was able to dissipate.”
Maher said DEC’s immediate concern was to ensure fluids like the coolant and engine oil that leaked from the truck were cleaned up.
“Unfortunately,” she said, “we don't usually handle LNG or natural gas releases, because what we're looking at typically is petroleum-based liquids that hit the ground.”
Maher said the Interior Gas Utility, or IGU, reported the incident to DEC. Utility officials didn’t respond Thursday afternoon to queries sent by emails and phone calls.
IGU General Manager Elena Sudduth said in an email Friday that the utility’s insurance will cover the costs incurred by wreck. She said IGU has 18 remaining trailers that are capable of hauling LNG over the Dalton Highway, and two others that could be used if needed.
Sudduth said IGU gets from four to seven tankerloads of LNG daily from the North Slope. She added that the utility has three trailers on order that’ll be ready for pickup in July or August.
The IGU got its first four tankerloads of LNG from its new supplier, Harvest Alaska LNG, in August. Harvest is an affiliate of Hilcorp, the Texas-based company that operates the Prudhoe Bay oilfields.
IGU’s previous supplier was its Titan Plant at Port MacKenzie, near Anchorage. From there, tankers brought the LNG to Fairbanks over the Parks Highway.
Editor’s note: This story has been revised.
