COLUMBIA FALLS — An official with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection says it could be weeks before a diesel fuel spill that hit a Columbia Falls fish hatchery dissipates.

Officials say at least 1,000 gallons of off-road diesel fuel leaked from a truck overnight Monday, sending fuel into the Middle River, the Pleasant River and through vital smelt spawning beds.

The DEP’s Robert Shannon calls it “kind of like a perfect storm” because the diesel flowed into the three waterways before it ended up at a fish hatchery and smelt spawning grounds.

Dwayne Shaw, the director of the Pleasant River Hatchery, tells the Bangor Daily News he doesn’t know what will happen to 135,000 hatching salmon eggs.

The cleanup of the spill continues.

 


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