The Colorado Department of Transportation suspended a contractor Thursday after a second asphalt tanker in nine days spilled into the Cache la Poudre River west of Fort Collins.
Thursday’s spill in Poudre Canyon released 5,000 gallons of asphalt and 200 gallons of diesel into the river, after a nearly identical accident 3 miles upstream Aug. 26.
The contractor, Lafarge West, is working on Colorado 14 west of Cameron Pass.
“CDOT has suspended all work on the project until Lafarge provides documentation regarding the corrective actions taken to prevent a recurrence,” the agency said.
“CDOT is very concerned about the impact of these spills and is working to ensure that this issue be corrected immediately.”
A spokesman for Lafarge West, based in Westminster, was not immediately available. The company contracted Transtank of Colorado to deliver asphalt from Denver. The drivers were from different trucking companies hired by Transtank, according to CDOT.
Tests showed no dangerous contamination from the first spill. The river provides drinking water to Fort Collins, Greeley and other towns, as well as irrigation to farms.
It is Colorado’s only nationally designated Wild and Scenic River, and the riverside highway is a Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway.
The drivers weren’t seriously injured in either crash, according to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. The driver in the Aug. 26 spill was cited for careless driving.
The highway was briefly closed from Stove Prairie to Ted’s Place but was reopened Thursday evening. The river remained closed for recreation from mile marker 113 to mile marker 119.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had said Tuesday that a 4-mile stretch of the river closed from the first spill would reopen today to rafting, fishing and other recreation for the holiday weekend. The agency has yet to update that statement.
