By Vivian Roach | Staff Writer, Video by Winston Margaritis | Broadcast Reporter
A suspected diesel leak on Wednesday afternoon on Fifth street believed to be from the nearby Exxon gas station doesn’t pose a threat.
Dennis Nolan, Baylor director of environmental health and safety, said it is believed that a fuel leak from the Exxon station down the road had entered the storm sewer and traveled down to campus, under the bridge on Fifth street.
“It is most likely diesel. It entered the storm sewer and traveled down here,” Nolan said Wednesday afternoon. “So far it hasn’t traveled very far, so we’ve got an environmental company to come and flush out the fuel.”
A diesel leak isn’t as dangerous as a gas leak because it is a thicker and less volatile than gas — slow moving and not as flammable — Nolan said. He was hoping they would catch it before it entered the creek.
Nolan believed it wasn’t a threat and that they would be able to capture all of it. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is inspecting the gas leak Thursday, and the scale of clean up will be determined afterward.
The Waco Fire Department hazmat and the city’s stormwater utility company were on the scene because the compromised stormwater line is property of the city, Nolan said.
“It doesn’t appear we are responsible, so the Exxon station will have to pay a company to do the actual clean up,” Nolan said.
