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Previously:

• Klamath Falls Man in Custody On Suspicion of Hit and Run Following Yesterday's Tar Spill on U.S. 199

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As Six Rivers National Forest Service personnel assess the damage from Thursday’s asphalt spill on U.S. 199, representatives of a local conservation group say they will likely advocate for a policy that restricts chemical transportation through the Smith River Canyon.

About 400 gallons of asphalt binder hit the Smith River when the trailer carrying it overturned at milepost marker 10.65 between Hiouchi and Gasquet on Thursday, according to a Six Rivers National Forest spokeswoman.

National Forest Service personnel were beginning cleanup efforts on Monday, she told the Wild Rivers Outpost. Cleanup is estimated to take about a month, she said.

“When it hit the river it became a solid,” she said. “But that’s still 400 (gallons) of debris that is in the river.”

Thursday’s collision could have been much worse, both for motorists and for the Smith River, said Don Gillespie, president of Friends of Del Norte. However, he said, the conservation organization is concerned about protecting water quality, pointing out that the river provides drinking water for many communities.

For the past eight years, Friends of Del Norte has participated litigation bent on halting a project to widen U.S. 199 and State Route 197 in three places to make it safer for trucks meeting the 1982 Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA) standard.

But the truck involved in Thursday’s crash was a California legal truck, not an STAA-approved truck, Gillespie said. The driver being charged with driving under the influence may make it difficult for Caltrans and other agencies to hear Friends of Del Norte’s concerns about safety on U.S. 199, he said.

“This has happened before; that’s our main concern,” Gillespie told the Wild Rivers Outpost. “A good driver — and I’ve seen these guys coming through for years — a good driver should have brought that load through the canyon, no problem. But we’re just concerned.”

Gillespie said Friends of Del Norte wants to at least enable the California Highway Patrol to know what chemicals are coming down U.S. 199 and to potentially limit the number of tankers coming through the Smith River Canyon.

Thursday’s collision occurred near milepost marker 10.65 between Hiouchi and Gasquet and involved a 2001 3-axle Freightliner that had a damaged rear tire and was hauling a double trailer, according to the California Highway Patrol.

At about 10:43 a.m., the vehicle drifted to the right and struck a power pole, bringing power lines onto the roadway. Further south, one of the trailers detached and overturned spilling about 2,000 gallons of asphalt binder onto the highway.

The truck driver, Raoul H.D. Payette Jr., allegedly continued on his way, according to the CHP. Officers arrested him in Hiouchi at about 11:02 a.m. Thursday and charged him with driving under the influence and misdemeanor hit and run. Payette was released from the Del Norte County Jail on Thursday.

On an April 30, Friends of Del Norte representative Joe Gillespie took to Facebook to outline the group’s concerns.

“We are outraged and will seek greater restrictions for transport of toxic substances along the Smith River,” Joe Gillespie stated. “Many serious questions come to mind: Is there a list of all toxic load transports kept by the CHP so they and the public know when this is occurring? Are these loads checked anywhere before transport by the CHP? How about the drivers? In what ways might we insure that toxic loads are transported more safely? Can they be banned from Hwy199? Should they be?”

One community that was impacted by the asphalt spill was Hiouchi, which is served by the Big Rock Community Services District. Big Rock CSD, which provides water to Hiouchi residents, turned off the system and decided to keep it off for a few hours even though it learned that the spill hadn’t affected water quality, board member Joe “Hank” Akin told the Outpost.

However, Akin said, most customers shouldn’t have seen a difference in their water service and probably wouldn’t have known of the impact had it not been reported on the radio.

“We have a large enough capacity tank we could have gotten through a day or two without having to turn (the pumps) back on depending on water usage,” Akin said. “We were reasonably safe.”

Thursday’s crash shut down U.S. 199 for several hours while the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Six Rivers National Forest, Caltrans, CHP, CalOES and the Del Norte Office of Emergency Services tried to contain the spill. The highway reopened completely at about 5:12 p.m. Thursday.

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