The Ministry of the Environment has been called in following a “significant” fuel spill in Caledon this morning.
At around 2:26 a.m., a tractor-trailer carrying about 58,000 litres of fuel was heading up a hill near Highway 9 and Airport Road when the vehicle jackknifed and one of the trailers it was hauling flipped over.
OPP Const. Stephanie Hammond told reporters at the scene Tuesday that at least 23,000 litres of gasoline was spilled following the rollover.
“It (the fuel) has gone into the ditches. It has also gone into the catch basin,” she said.
“So it is in to a low lying area down there where it is kind of contained.”
Hammond said the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of the Environment, and Brampton Hazmat were all on scene this morning.
“This is a significant fuel spill,” she said.
“We have a pumper truck that is down there presently obviously to pump out what fuel they can see visibly,” she said, adding that crews will also be digging out any soil that has been soaked with fuel.
There is some concern that the fuel could spill into the Humber River, Hammond confirmed.
“At this time, I don’t have confirmation about whether it has actually done so,” she said.
“Until some further testing is done with cleanup crews and so on, I won’t have that information.”
The rainfall has also complicated the cleanup, Hammond added.
“Every time it starts to rain that hampers the efforts here for all the crews that are on scene,” she said.
“The rain just washes it further away from the contained area.”
Police say it will likely take several hours to clean up the large spill.
Highway 9 is closed from Airport Road to Highway 50 and the area is not expected to reopen to traffic until late this afternoon.
“It could possibly go into the rush hour,” Hammond noted.
No injuries were reported following the incident but paramedics were on scene Tuesday morning as a precaution.
It is still unclear what caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle but Hammond said speed does not appear to be a factor.
Police are continuing to investigate.
