Hazmat incident at Nyngan
Published: 5th February 2008
Just after noon firefighters from Nyngan responded to reports of a B Double truck overturned on the Barrier Highway 40 kilometres west of Nyngan, towards Cobar. On arrival fire crews found the east-bound truck had overturned spilling its load of two 20 tonne generators. A large amount of sump oil from the generators, mixed with diesel, had spilled into the table drain that was filled with water from recent heavy rainfalls. Firefighters set up booms to contain the oil and Hazmat specialists from Dubbo used skimmer pumps to recover the spilled oil/diesel mixture. A gas detector was used to ensure that no flammable vapours were present while the operation was in progress. The hazardous waste was pumped into two 1000 litre galvanised tanks supplied by the Council. The driver was conveyed to hospital with minor injuries.