ANMOORE -- A truck leaked some type of food substance into waters in Harrison County Friday, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection and a local emergency response official.
Sgt. T. Miller of the Harrison-Taylor Bureau of Emergency Services said his agency got a report around 4 a.m. of a semi-truck leaking something "almost like a sugar water" into a creek near mile marker 117 of Interstate 79. He said the incident was in the town of Anmoore, near Clarksburg.
Miller said the creek was "almost black" from the leak, and that the DEP and Bridgeport-based Ryan Environmental LLC were still on scene at least 12 hours after the initial report. He said several thousands of gallons leaked.
But DEP spokeswoman Kelley Gillenwater told the Gazette-Mail late Friday night that only one, damaged plastic container on the truck was leaking, and that each of the containers held up to 330 gallons. She said she didn't know exactly how much of the container leaked or what area may have been affected, noting that county emergency officials told the DEP that a West Virginia State Police trooper had pulled over the driver after noticing the leak.
She said the material -- which she described as "a food grade material-a thin syrup" but didn't have further details on -- was cleaned up from a wetland area it entered. She said material that made it to the stream mixed with the water and washed away, but there was no indication of a fish kill.