NHDES Spill Response crew joins effort to protect water from oil spill

An accident in late November involving an oil transport tanker truck threatened to contaminate nearby Stag Hollow Brook, but thanks to the combined efforts of emergency response crews, no oil impacts have been observed in the surface water to date. 

On the morning of November 27, 2023, the truck, owned by Seacoast Energy Transport LLC, rolled over on Route 115 in Jefferson, N.H., during a snowstorm event and came to rest in a field. As a result of the accident, a portion of the tanker was breached, causing the release of #2 fuel oil at the accident scene. The Jefferson Fire Department, New Hampshire State Police and B&B Towing initially responded to the scene. NHDES Spill Response was notified immediately upon discovery of the oil spill and responded to the scene with Clean Harbors, a state emergency response contractor. 

Throughout the first day of the incident, Dead River Co. supplied additional resources to the scene to transfer salvageable oil from the tanker while Clean Harbors mobilized a vacuum truck and an excavator to begin recovery operations at the scene. Based on the available information, an estimated volume of 4,500 gallons of #2 fuel oil was released to the ground surface at the incident scene. 

Site remediation activities are ongoing and include the excavation of interceptor trenches to facilitate pumping and removal of oil from the ground surface at the scene, along with soil removal from the source area and supplemental investigation and response activities intended to protect Stag Hollow Brook. NHDES will continue to monitor the progress of response activities through coming days and weeks. 

For more information about spill response in New Hampshire, see our Spill Response webpage.