Eleven under scrutiny after more spillage discovered

Forest Service awaiting report before taking any action

After district forest rangers inspected the accident site of a tipped snowcat on Lake Irwin, it was concluded that more fluids than originally thought leaked from the machine. So a professional environmental engineering firm was contracted to perform a thorough clean-up of the site this past week.

Envirotech Inc. of New Mexico was hired by the Eleven company, owners of Scarp Ridge Lodge and the Irwin Backcountry Guides snowcat skiing operation, to oversee the clean-up of potential hazardous materials left on Lake Irwin after Eleven’s Tucker snowcat tipped on its side February 9. Forest Service officials are waiting for a report from the company before making a final evaluation of the situation. That report is expected to be released within two weeks.
The snowcat tipped over in a whiteout by the lake’s spillway last month during a snowstorm. The resulting accident left fluids from the snowcat on the snow and ice. Irwin Backcountry Guides (IBG), a subsidiary of Eleven, reported to the Forest Service that it had cleaned up any hazardous materials the next day. It also told the agency that approximately four gallons of fluid was all that had leaked from the cat and no diesel fuel was part of that mix.
But Forest Service rangers went to the site to investigate it themselves after snow conditions settled and rangers could coordinate a time for a site visit. The USFS, along with state and federal environmental monitoring agencies, was encouraged by a group of Irwin property owners known as the Lake Irwin Coalition (LIC) to look at the site themselves and sanction IBG for being lax in its reporting and clean-up methods.
Foresters visited the site late last week and discovered snow and ice still contaminated with fluids from the snowcat. Some of that fluid was obviously diesel fuel. IBG employees immediately shoveled the snow into bags and drums and took the mixture to the IBG mechanical garage where substances like diesel and oil could be separated from the water.
Eleven chief operating officer Kyra Martin said the company truly believed they had gotten all the contamination cleaned up the day after the accident.
“We are taking full responsibility but we are really trying to figure out how it happened,” said Martin. “We are trying to understand how we missed it. We are baffled by it.”
Martin said the new 2014 Tucker snowcat that was being used is designed to prevent any major fuel leaks. IBG is looking at the possibility that a neck leading to the fuel tank leaked some diesel deep into the snow, but that neck doesn’t appear to have been damaged.
“We’re trying to come up with a logical answer on how diesel leaked and we didn’t notice it immediately but we keep hitting a wall,” she said.
As it turned out, the company this week hauled away a lot of contaminated snow and ice in bags and storage drums. Most of that was obviously water. “With the help of Envirotech we feel confident the site is now completely clean,” Martin said. “The scientists from the company are perfectionists and they made sure they were 100 percent comfortable with how the site was left. They also left some absorbent booms and will come back in the spring to monitor the site.”
Martin admitted that one of their cat drivers pushed snow into the pit where the Tucker had tipped over. His rationale was that snowmobiles frequently traveled on that part of the lake so it was best to fill the hole out of safety concerns. “He felt the excavation hole would be dangerous to snowmobilers so he took action on his own. That was not a company decision,” Martin explained. “We have spoken with the employee and addressed the issue internally.”
LIC President David Gottorff painted a more ominous picture of the situation. A self-proclaimed foe of any development by Eleven, Gottorff had written the Crested Butte News that, “IBG is not operating in good faith and has tried to cover up a serious violation of their permit. The USFS has once again shown that it is unable to adequately oversee IBG as a commercial operator.”
The LIC has requested that the USFS suspend IBG’s permit “for not immediately reporting the spill, providing a falsified report to the USFS and for attempting to cover up the incident by covering the spill with snow before reporting the incident.”
Gunnison District Forest Ranger John Murphy said the agency is waiting for the facts to come in before taking any action with Eleven. “The report from Envirotech should be released in 10 to 14 days,” he explained. “We want to wait on the facts. We will then conduct an ‘after action review’ that will address everything. It will look at the action taken by Eleven and IBG and the action taken by the Forest Service. From that review we will see what needs to be done differently. Maybe we will have to add some things to the permit. For example, we’ve talked about not allowing the snowcat to operate during whiteout conditions.
“If we determine that they did something inappropriately we would consider action,” continued Murphy. “If we do take action against them, they have the right to appeal so we want to make sure we are on solid ground. That’s why we are waiting on the report and the facts of the situation as determined by the experts.”
Murphy said it certainly appears that there were inaccuracies in the original report since the report claimed no diesel was lost in the accident. “There are some issues here but we don’t want to speculate at this time,” he said.
Murphy said when rangers went up to inspect the site it initially looked good. But when they started digging into the snow, they smelled diesel fuel. They then discovered more contaminated snow. It was suggested that Eleven hire a third-party environmental clean-up firm. Eleven hired Envirotech.
Crested Butte Public Works Director Rodney Due said he visited the site on Monday. “I understand mistakes were made but when they brought in Envirotech I feel they did a good job on the clean-up. Everything that could be done was being done under the circumstances,” he said. “I’m confident that the Crested Butte watershed has not been impacted, given our intake location about 300 or 400 yards from the spillway.”
Due said he is confident in the monitoring of the area and is not worried about water contamination for town.
“If they could have got Envirotech there immediately it would have been better but it seems to be in good shape right now,” he concluded.
Martin said the company has certainly learned some lessons. “In hindsight, we shouldn’t have left it there overnight when the snowcat tipped. Despite it blowing and snowing there wasn’t avalanche danger on that part of the lake,” she said. “We could have brought in lights and addressed the situation right then. Going forward, we’ll adjust the spill operating plan.
“We also will revise the procedures in place so it can be followed on an itemized basis,” she continued. “We want to make it as thorough and simple as possible. This has not been an easy time and we certainly have learned some lessons.”