Chemical Spill Shuts Down Part of Klamath River
Medford Mail Tribune
August 20, 2006

A semitrailer hauling 6,500 gallons of asphalt emulsion overturned on Highway 96 less than a mile from the river, the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

Between 500 and 1,000 gallons spilled into the Klamath River, creating an eight-mile plume that reached the area of Rocky Ridge below Hamburg. By Saturday, the plume had spread to the Happy Camp area.

Biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game floated the river Saturday morning, warning that no one should use the river, officials said.

The semi's driver, a 45-year-old Lake Shasta man, was treated for minor injuries at Fairfield Medical Center and released. The accident is under investigation by California Highway Patrol officers, officials said.

By late Saturday, Fish and Game workers were still cleaning up the black, tar-like globs in the river created by the emulsion. Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency from San Francisco arrived at Happy Camp to assess the damage.

The river will be closed from the Blue Heron access just above the confluence with the Scott River, to the Sarah Totten Campground in the Hamburg area until further notice.

Public health workers advise that contact with the emulsion could cause minor skin irritation.

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