An Oil Truck Flips

Chapter 1: The Oil Truck Collision

The oil truck lumbered down Highway 16 heading south toward Acton, and Dave could feel the truck’s unibody frame straining under the heavy load of #2 fuel oil in the tank. The cool weather had arrived early this year and with the change in temperature came the calls for oil to heat people’s homes. This morning, oil delivery trucks just like Dave’s were fanning out all across the city to fill residential tanks. The road, normally dark grey tarmac, was covered with a thin layer of white crystals that looked like grey stubble on an old man’s face. It made driving very slippery, and even though there were few cars on the road, Dave kept his speed well below the posted speed limit.

The car coming in the other direction wasn’t speeding so much as driving erratically. It caught Dave’s attention when it drifted across the yellow center line and then weaved back to its own lane. But it was too late. The rear wheels lost their grip on the slippery road and swung out into the path of the truck. Dave desperately turned the wheel hand over hand as fast as he could, pulling with all his strength. The truck slowly began to turn, and the front end missed the car. However, Dave’s relief was short lived. He heard the impact of his back wheels and felt the back end of his truck begin to lift. At that moment, Dave knew he was in serious trouble. The large truck wheels struck the oncoming car, stopping dead, but the heavy oil tank maintained its forward momentum, and the truck began to roll. Dave braced himself against the seat, glad that he’d remembered to put his seat belt on this morning. The truck tipped over the back of the smaller car, slammed to the ground on its side with a loud crunch, and skidded across the highway finally coming to a screeching stop about thirty feet down the road.

Dave kept his eyes closed and listened. The terrible smashing noises had stopped and frightening silence filled the cab. He was still sitting in his seat grasping the steering wheel tightly but was jammed up hard against the driver’s door. Slowly he opened his eyes and looked out the front windshield. The glass was still intact, and he could see the colorful fall leaves on the trees. Beside him, just outside the shattered driver’s window, was the black asphalt road. He poked his finger at it to make sure it was real and felt the hard cold surface. Then Dave heard something that alarmed him, the glug, glug sound of oil spilling out of his tank. He unfastened his seat belt and climbed up the truck cab and out the passenger window, then lowered himself carefully down to the street and ran around to the top of the tank. Dave froze in horror when he saw hundreds of gallons of reddish-brown fuel oil pouring out the top of the tank onto Highway 16.

Chapter 2: Discovery

Mr. Brown drove up Myrtle Lane and turned left onto Highway 16. He glanced around to the back seat and found Natalie and Jason curled up with their eyes closed trying to sleep a few more minutes before school started. “At least it’s quiet”, he thought to himself. He accelerated quickly and noted the dark tire tracks in the white frosty road. He had just reached 50 miles an hour when, up ahead in the distance, he saw the red brake lights of the cars in front of him. Soon, he could also see the flashing lights of fire trucks and police cars blocking the road. When the reddish brown oil flowing down the gutter caught his attention, and he knew it wasn’t just a simple fender bender.

He pulled the car up onto the shoulder and said, “Natalie! Jason! It’s time to get up. There’s been an accident.” Natalie and Jason uncurled. They picked up their bags and were about to open the door when Jason looked out the window and said, “Hey, this isn’t our school. Where are we?” “We’re still on Highway 16. There’s been an accident,” Mr. Brown repeated. “Let’s go find out if we can help.” “OK,” both kids said together suddenly wide-eyed and awake.

They walked up the side of the road toward the fire trucks and a small crowd that had gathered. On the way, both Jason and Natalie noted the oil flowing down the gutters. Their sense of urgency heightened, and they all quickened their steps. When they reached the accident, Mr. Brown looked at the overturned oil truck and groaned.

The truck lay on its side across the street. The top of the cab and tank were largely undamaged, but the side lying on the street was crunched and pushed in. The back tire that hit the car was shredded with bits of rubber and wire sprung out like a bad hair day. Under the truck was a pool of reddish-brown oil that was cooling and thickening in the freezing morning air. Across the side of the oil tank they could read, Roger’s Oil, in large bright red letters. Natalie and Jason looked at the back of the tank and found the red placard with the white flame. The number at the bottom read “2198”. “Definitely Number 2 home heating oil,” Natalie said.

The driver stood near the cab talking to a police office and waving his arms furiously. Behind the truck lay a mangled mid-size blue car still upright in its wheels. The front end look untouched but the rear had been crushed. At that moment, an ambulance siren blared loudly shattering the relative quiet. Its lights lit up as the vehicle accelerated down the road toward the hospital.

“Wow, what a mess!” Jason exclaimed. “Look at all the oil.” “Roger’s Oil. Isn’t that’s one of your clients, Dad?” asked Natalie. “Yes, it is Natalie,” Mr. Brown answered quietly, “and they’ve got quite an oil spill here. I’ll have to stay to help them clean it up. I’ll call someone from my office to take you two to school today.” “No way!” both Natalie and Jason protested. “We’re part of N&J Environmental too,” Jason reminded his father. “Yes, and we’re staying to help cleanup this mess,” Natalie said firmly.

Chapter 3: The Plan

Mr. Brown looked at his two kids. Both of them glared up at him challenging him to send them to school, hoping he’d let them stay. He felt himself withering under their stare and was relieved when his cell phone suddenly rang. “We’ll see,” he said, before answering his phone.

While Mr. Brown was busy, Natalie turned to Jason and said, “OK, if we’re going to stay, we’ve got to do something to help out.” “Right!” Jason snapped to attention and thought hard. He looked around at the pool of oil lying on the street and the long stream running down the gutter. “I know! I’m going to follow the oil down the street and find out where it’s going,” he said. “Good”, Natalie smiled, “and I’ll talk to the driver and find out what happened”. “But first we need our N&J Environmental hats, so we’re official here,” she added. Jason’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah!” he exclaimed, and the two of them ran back to the car to fetch their gear.

Chapter 4: Pine Creek

When he had collected everything he needed, Jason stepped away from the car and checked his gear. He was dressed in a red traffic vest and a N&J Environmental hat, on his belt he had a radio with full batteries, and he was carrying a spade and a walking meter. He and Natalie did a short radio check, and once satisfied, he trotted down the side of the road with the walking meter whirring counting the distance. The police had set up a roadblock about a hundred feet down and when he passed them, they looked at him smiled and waved. He returned their wave and felt good because he was part of the team of police, firemen, and a whole group of environmental technicians that would arrive soon.

Jason followed the river of reddish brown oil. It was still flowing slowly but small rocks and oil soaked leaves stuck out above the surface. The ice crystals on the road had melted into the oil but up on the shoulder, the crystals and frozen grass still crunched under each step. About two hundred feet down the highway, the oil suddenly disappeared down a storm water grate. “Oh, oh,” Jason thought to himself. “I wonder where this leads?” He walked up to the grate, bent down, and peered between the metal bars into the darkness below. After his eyes adjusted to the low light, he could see the oil flowing out an underground drainage pipe leading somewhere off the side of the road. Jason looked up in that direction but couldn’t see anything nearby that looked like a pond or river. A flat grassy field lay before him with some trees off in the distance. Listening carefully, he could hear the faint babble of a stream and guessed the end of the pipe was in the trees.

A small amount of oil was still flowing down the gutter and into the storm drain, so Jason took his spade and began building a dam. He dug into the frozen earth in the field and placed the dirt carefully in front of the grate. The oil quickly began to pool and stopped flowing into the drain. Jason spent about fifteen minutes shoveling more dirt onto the dam until it reached the top of the curb. When he was done, about an inch of oil had already collected. “This will do until the cleanup crew arrives,” he thought to himself.

Jason next looked at the tall grass and brush and was glad that he had worn his hiking boots this morning. He stepped out into the field and walked in the direction of the underground pipe. The walking meter whirred as it rolled over lumps of dirt and grass. He crossed the field quickly and upon entering the trees he clearly heard the babble of a creek. When he came upon it, he was stunned at the scene. The stream was small, about five feet across and only a few inches deep with a rocky bottom. The end of the underground drainage pipe poked out of the stream bank right below him and a thin line of oil was still flowing into the water below it. The real shock was downstream. Everything was covered with thick oil, all the rocks, sticks, leaves, and moss glistened reddish-brown. Small pools of water in the creek were covered with red globules that bobbled with the currents. The air was filled with the acrid smell of oil.

Something moving along the bank of the creek caught his attention. Down in the rocks, a small reddish-brown frog struggled to climb up the bank and out of the mess. Oil glistened on its back. Jason felt his stomach turn. The mess was bad enough, but the sight of this little creature writhing made him want to throw-up. He held it in, pulled himself together, and climbed down the stream bank. He picked up the frog, and taking a small hand towel from his pocket, wiped the cold slippery oil off the amphibian’s green skin. Then Jason walked up stream of the storm water pipe and placed the frog in the clean cool water. The frog quickly swam down into the water and disappeared beneath a rock. Jason felt much better.

Chapter 5: Danger for Georgetown

The truck driver had finished talking with the police officer, and Natalie walked over and introduced herself. “Hi,” Dave said flatly looking down at her. “You’re from N&J Environmental? Shouldn’t you be in school?” he asked skeptically. “Well, I would be if your truck wasn’t blocking the way,” Natalie said sharply. She immediately regretted being so rude and quickly tried to recover. “How are you?” she asked. “That was a bad accident!” Dave looked around impatiently. “Look kid, I’ve had a bad day, and it’s still morning. I gotta go.” As he turned to leave, Natalie tried again, “I just want to know how much oil was spilled,” she said loudly. Dave turned back briefly and looked at her hat and the orange vest. Then said as he walked away, “I loaded 2,400 gallons of #2 this morning and lost almost all of it,” and he was gone.

“Hmph,” Natalie thought to herself angrily. She was so steamed her ears felt hot. “What a jerk! How can I help him when he treats me like a kid?” She walked back to the car and pushed the thoughts from her mind. There was a lot to do.

On her way, she noted a small side street name Beckett Road that intersected with Highway 16. Natalie pulled the street atlas out of their car and opened it to the page where Highway 16 snaked its way through the northern end of town. She traced her finger down the highway looking at each intersection until she found Beckett Street. Now she knew exactly where they were on the map. She pulled out her radio, pushed the button and said clearly, “Jason, this is Natalie. Over!” A moment later, Jason’s voice crackled loudly from her handset, “Hi Natalie. This is Jason. What’s up? Over” “Wow!” Natalie yelled pulling the radio away from her ear startled at Jason’s loud voice. She turned the volume down a couple of notches and then spoke into her handset again. “Where are you? Over.” she asked. “I’m at a small stream just down the road and in the woods. It’s full of oil,” Jason responded. “Where are you? Over” “I’m at the car. The driver said he lost about 2,400 gallons of oil. Over.” Jason was silent for a moment as he considered the amount. Then said, “Uh … how much is that?” Natalie considered the question. There were a thousand different ways to answer, but she decided on the pool analogy. “That’s enough to fill two of those 10 foot rubber swimming pools,” she answered. “OK. Thanks,” Jason said. “The rocks and sticks in the stream are oily, but most of the oil has gone down stream. What should I do now?” Natalie looked at her map. She traced her finger down the road to a thin blue line that ran northwesterly. Next to the line was written Pine Creek. The map wasn’t a topography map with elevation lines, and she couldn’t tell which way the stream was flowing, so she asked Jason. “I can’t tell which way is north or south,” he answered. “Look at the compass on your key-chain,” Natalie said. “Oh yeah,” Jason’s voice grew distant. She heard some ruffling sounds, and then there was silence. Natalie pictured Jason looking down at his small compass waiting for the arrow to stop swinging and point to north.

After a couple of minutes, Natalie found herself growing impatient. They didn’t have much time before their father would make them go to school. They had to find out where the oil went and where to capture it. Finally Jason’s voice sprang from the radio again, “It’s going northwest. Over” “OK,” Natalie answered, and she raced her finger northwesterly along the thin blue line on the map. She didn’t have to go far before the line stopped at a bigger blue line with the name Satch River on it. “Uh, oh,” Natalie thought to herself, “If the oil reaches the river, it’s going to be hard to catch.” “Jason,” she spoke into the radio loudly, “Pine Creek flows into the Satch River which looks pretty close to you. Can you follow the stream to the River and see if the oil got that far?” Jason answered quickly, “OK. I mean, Roger WILCO! And over and out.”

Natalie put the handset down and continued to look at the map. “What if the oil did reach the river?” she asked herself. “Where would it go?” Tracing her finger along the thick blue line, she noted the bends where the oil might collect in back-eddies. Those were the best places to catch the oil. Not far down the river was the small village of Georgetown. She had been there before. It had a boardwalk along the riverbank with sidewalk cafés where the Brown’s ate lunch one sunny day during the summer. It was beautiful with lots of green trees, artsy shops, and people milling about. Natalie and Jason saved some of their bread from lunch to feed the ducks swimming in the river. She hoped the oil didn’t get that far but feared the worst.

Chapter 6: Oiled Brook

Jason put his radio back into its holster and began walking downstream toward Satch River. All along the brook, the rocks, sticks, fallen leaves, and moss were covered with a thin layer of oil. In areas where the stream pooled, a rainbow sheen appeared on the water, a telltale sign that the oil was there. Every now and then he would see something small crawling in the slick oil, and he would investigate. He found mostly frogs, but he also found two salamanders. They were all covered with oil and too tired to jump or crawl away. By the time, he reached the Satch River; Jason was carrying two handfuls of wriggling amphibians.

The Satch River was quite large, about 30 feet across and was flowing quietly but steadily. He looked up stream and found a small pool of still water where he placed the creatures. The frogs quickly swam to the bottom, and the two salamanders swam to the edge and lay motionless in the pebbles. When they entered the water, the oil immediately transferred to the water and spread across the surface creating a rainbow sheen. Having done all he could for them, Jason turned around and headed down the River.

Jason stumbled over the river stones for short time and then found a walking trail up on the bank and picked up his pace. He didn’t see much oil in the river. Some of the tree branches and leaves lying in the water were stained, but mostly they were green and the usual fall colors, red, yellow, and brown.

He had walked for about five minutes when the river turned to the right. Walking around the bend, he looked for any back eddies where debris and oil might collect. Sure enough, on the downstream side, a small eddy slowly rotated and collected debris from the main channel of the river. Small sticks and leaves floated harmlessly around the spiral. In addition, a thin layer of reddish-brown oil and thick brown foam, a nasty concoction of mixed oil and water, was trapped.

Further downstream, Jason came to a small bridge. The road crossing over it was quiet, and he knew it couldn’t be Highway 16. Just before the bridge, the river widened into a large shallow pool with back eddies on both sides against the bridge abutments. Thick reddish-brown oil and brown froth had collected on both sides, and the stone abutments were stained at the water line. A small trail of oil was leaking off each eddy, around the bridge abutment, and down the river. When the oil hit the faster current under the bridge, it all but disappeared from view as it picked up speed and thinned out in the turbulent fast moving water.

Jason estimated there were 10 gallons of oil swirling in the eddies. He didn’t know how much was in Pine Brook, but it wasn’t anywhere close to 2,400 gallons. “Most of the oil must have gone further down river,” he thought. Having walked quite far already, Jason didn’t want to go much further without help, so he took his radio out of its holster and called Natalie. “Hi Jason,” she answered. What did you find?” her voice buzzed and crackled at first and then cleared. “Lot’s of stuff,” Jason began. “The brook is soaked all the way down to Satch River, and the river has oil in it as well.” “Not good,” said Natalie. Then Jason told her about the back eddies and the bridge where the 10 gallons of oil had collected. “Not good at all,” Natalie repeated. She traced her finger along the thick blue line on the map to where a small road crossed it. “You’re at Oliver Road. It’s about a half mile from here. “What do you want to do now?” she asked. Jason knew the oil could have traveled miles downstream by now, so he decided to return to the accident scene. “Why not stay there, and I’ll see if Dad can come pick you up,” Natalie suggested. “OK,” Jason agreed. “Over and out,” they both said together.

Chapter 7: Natalie Steps Up

Natalie put her radio back into its holster and looked around for her Dad. She found him standing next to a police car talking to the fire chief, a police officer, and couple of other men. Dave, the oil truck driver, was standing off to one side listening to their conversation. She grabbed her street atlas and walked over to the group of men. When she got within earshot, she heard the Fire Chief shoot several questions at Mr. Brown, “When will your response crew be here, and what are they going to do?” Mr. Brown answered quickly, “They’ll be here in 10 minutes. First, we’ll reconnoiter the down stream area and set up oil collection points. We’ll have a backhoe, and we’ve ordered a roll-off.” “Great,” the Fire Chief said relieved and then added, “How fast can you get this all done? The mayor wants to know where the oil is going.” Mr. Brown was about to answer when Natalie stepped into the ring of men and said boldly, “I can answer that!” She pushed her way through the circle of men and placed the street atlas on the hood of the police car.

The Fire Chief looked down at her in surprise stepping back as she brushed past him. He looked at her hat and orange vest and her school clothes and then asked, “Oh, and who are you young lady?” “Uh, Chief”, Mr. Brown said, “This is my daughter, Natalie. She runs N&J Environmental … when she’s not in school,” he emphasized and shot Natalie a look as if to say, “Not now!” Natalie suddenly lost her nerve. She smiled weakly and stepped backward feeling suddenly as though she had done something very wrong. The group was silent, and Natalie looked at her dad with tears beginning to collect in her eyes. The Fire Chief turned back toward the men and was about to start talking again, when Mr. Brown, suddenly realized his mistake and said, “So, what do you have to report, Natalie?”

As all eyes focused on her again, Natalie sucked in a big breath and collected herself. Her stomach fluttered nervously but she turned to the map, put her shaking finger on the scene of the accident, and began, “Here’s where the truck spilled about 2,400 gallons of #2 oil. We’ve had our recon team (she thought recon team sounded better than Jason, her younger brother) in the field for the last half-hour assessing where the oil is going.” “Really?” asked the Fire Chief. “You didn’t tell me that,” he said turning to Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown looked uncomfortable for a moment and then chuckled, “Well, I’m not kidding when I say Natalie runs the business. Sometimes she doesn’t even tell me what’s going on.” “Please Natalie, go on,” Mr. Brown said. “Yes. Please continue young lady. What did you find?” the Fire Chief said. Natalie then recounted the storm drain in the road, the drainage pipe and Pine Brook, the Satch River connection including the back eddies, and finished with the boardwalk riverfront in downtown Georgetown. As she spoke the men gathered around closer to watch and listen. When she had finished, the Fire Chief became quite agitated, “Has the oil reached Georgetown yet?” he asked. “We don’t know. Our recon team is on foot and hasn’t gotten as far as Georgetown,” Natalie answered. Mr. Brown quickly added, “I’ll have one of our trucks go straight there. We should have that info in five or ten minutes.” “Good! Now we’re getting somewhere,” said the Fire Chief. “We’re going to send a fire truck down town as well, and we’ll send a truck to that bridge in Oliver Road.” The Fire Chief then turned to another fireman standing nearby and said, “Lieutenant Roy, take the pumper truck down to the bridge and let me know what you find. Then drive into town and join us there.” “Yes Sir,” the Lieutenant said crisply. Just before he turned to go, Natalie spoke up, “Our recon team is down at the bridge. Can I ride with you to pick them up?” The Fire Chief smiled and said to Mr. Brown, “It’s up to you.” Natalie grabbed her dad’s hand and pleaded with him. After all, she’d never ridden in a fire truck before. Mr. Brown looked at his watch and frowned, “I guess you’d be late for school anyway. OK, you can go.” “Yesss!” Natalie celebrated. The Fire Chief spoke to the Lieutenant, “Take Natalie here with you to pick up her team.” “OK, sir,” he answered, and the Lieutenant and Natalie headed off toward the Fire Truck. As Natalie walked passed Dave the truck driver, he waved at her and said, “Nice work, kid.” She looked at him said, “I’m not a kid,” then continued on her way.

Chapter 8: Georgetown

Jason was getting worried he’d been forgotten when the fire truck pulled up onto the bridge with its red lights flashing. The horn blasted twice, wreaking havoc on the quiet of the forest and sending birds flying. He looked up and saw Natalie leaning out the passenger window looking for him. He was still down in the forest searching for frogs and other critters in need of rescue, and he raced up the embankment as fast as he could. “Natalie! Over here!” he shouted waving his arms and chasing after them as fast as his legs could go. When he caught up, he gasped, “Wow! How did you get a ride in the fire truck?” “I think the Fire Chief liked the info you gave us,” she said smiling and opening the door. ”Come on, climb in!” Natalie scooted into the middle making room for Jason, and the two of them poured over all the buttons and switches on the dash. The Lieutenant took a quick look at the river and then climbed back into the cab. “This is your recon team?” he asked looking at Jason. “Yep,” Natalie said, “He’s the best.” Jason smiled and then said, “Where are we going?” “To Georgetown!” Natalie answered, “That’s where the oil is going.”

The Lieutenant revved up the motor and drove the pumper truck three miles into town, where they met up with the Fire Chief and the rest of the crew. Several N&J Environmental trucks were already there with many workers in their blue shirts. A couple of press trucks were parked nearby as well, and several curious by-standers had gathered at the rivers edge to watch the action.

Before Natalie and Jason even saw the river, they could smell the fuel oil in the air. They raced to the boardwalk and looked over the bright green metal railing down into the river. The water was covered with a thin layer of oil that shone in the ripples like a thousand tiny rainbows. The colors bounced and shifted constantly as the water flowed. “If it was not so dangerous, it would be beautiful,” Natalie thought. A couple of female ducks scurried out from under the boardwalk and flew away when a fire truck drove up with its siren blaring. “Excellent”, Natalie said to Jason who nodded with a smile. They didn’t find the thick oil slick until they looked upstream near the edge of town. Like nightfall, the thick dark oil crept through the sticks and rocks along the riverbank toward town. Natalie watched in alarm and knew that none of the businesses along the boardwalk would be open today. None of their regular customers would eat breakfast along the river and none of the staff would have a job this morning.

As Natalie and Jason walked along the boardwalk, Mr. Brown’s voice crackled from the radio, “Jason. Come in.” Jason scrambled to get the radio out of the holster on his belt. “Hi Dad! Over” he said when he pushed the button. “Where are you, buddy?” Mr. Brown asked. “I’m in Georgetown with Natalie,” he answered. “OK. Jim is there too. Can you drive with him to the spill?” “Sure,” Jason said. “We need both of you here to help clean up the oil. Oh, and by the way … did you build the dam in front of the storm water drain?” “Yes,” Jason answered grinning from ear to ear. “Good work, son. That was very smart,” Mr. Brown said. “See you when you get here. Over and out.”

“Well,” said Natalie who had heard the entire conversation, “Our plan worked, and I guess yeah!”

Chapter 9: Cleaning the Road

Jason ran back to the cars, found Mr. Thompson, and soon they were flying down Highway 16 only slowing down as they approached the police checkpoint. Jason waved to the officers who quickly moved the roadblock to let them pass. When they arrived at the scene, they found the oil truck still stranded on its side like a turtle stuck on its back, its black powerful wheels hanging awkwardly in the air. A large tow-truck idled nearby with its lights flashing. When Jason approached, he saw the tow truck’s cable was attached to the top of the oil truck and everyone was getting ready to pull the oil truck back onto its wheels. After a few moments, the tow-truck’s engine roared loudly and the truck slowly moved forward. The cable grew taught, and the oil truck began to move. Slowly, steadily, the tow truck inched forward pulling the oil truck up off its side. Then with a sudden teeter and one more pull, the oil truck crashed down and came to rest on all six wheels.

Jason and several police and firemen walked around the smashed up oil truck inspecting the damage. The back mud flap was bent, and blue paint from the car was smeared onto the back bumper. The side of the tank was scraped and pushed in. The words “Rogers Oil” were smudged and barely legible. The fire chief pointed his finger at a large hole in the tank and said, “This is why you lost your whole load.” They all nodded in agreement.

Within a few minutes, the tow truck drove off with the oil truck in tow. Then the backhoe dumped a load of dirt onto the pool of oil and spread it around covering the thick gooey slick. Soon the road was covered with dirt all the way down to the storm drain. Jason watched as the backhoe then scooped up the oil and dirt and dumped it into a large roll-off bin. The road underneath was stained black with a thin layer of oil and dirt, but the reddish-brown oil river was gone.

Jason was helping scoop up the last bit of oil soaked dirt on the road when Mr. Brown asked, “We’ll be done here shortly. Can you take the crew down to the creek with sorbent pads and clean it up?” “Sure,” Jason said, “But what about the river?” “Don’t worry,” Mr. Brown assured him. “We’re taking care of that with the vac-trucks.”

Chapter 10: Cleaning the River

Natalie had barely said good-bye to her brother when several large vac-trucks arrived. She spotted Jim with his big inner tube stomach talking with Lieutenant Roy and immediately raced over to him. “Hi Jim,” she said smiling and held out her hand to shake his. Jim turned around and a smile quickly flashed across his face, “Hello Natalie. Why am I not surprised to see you here?” He laughed, and his stomach jiggled just like it always did. He took Natalie’s hand and shook it firmly. “Now, if I know you correctly, and I believe I do, you’ve got this place reconned already and have a plan in that head of yours,” he said looking at her suspiciously. “Now that’s the truth,” the Lieutenant said before Natalie could speak. “So, what do we do first?” Jim asked her.

Natalie didn’t need to be asked twice and dove into her plan first explaining that the oil slick had not reached town yet and if they hurried they could catch it on the upstream side. “There’s an access road to the river at the beginning of the boardwalk where we can set up a river boom. I’ve also seen several other roads or alleys down to the river about every fifty yards. We’ve got three vac trucks. If we park one down each of the roads, we should have enough hose to get to almost all of the oil,” she said.

Jim nodded and looked at the Lieutenant waiting for his input. “Hey, she’s two steps ahead of me,” the Lieutenant said shrugging his shoulders. “OK, then. Let’s do it.” Jim said reaching for his radio, “N&J people, meet me at my truck for a briefing.” Then he smiled at Natalie and said, “It’s your show, young lady.”

Natalie grew a little nervous as the people began to gather but she knew most of them and several had already come to say hello which made her feel better. When everyone was gathered, she cleared her throat and stepped forward. She repeated what she’d just told Jim and the Lieutenant who nodded in agreement and encouraged her. At the end, she began to feel relaxed and finished off by assigning trucks to locations along the riverbank. She even remembered which truck had the longest hose and assigned it the last location, which was the most remote.

When she finished, the crowd broke up and everyone headed off to their assignments. Even Jim went to work. Only Lieutenant Roy was left standing with her. “Uh,” he said in amazement as the crew dispersed. “Where did you learn all this stuff?” he asked her. “From helping my dad,” Natalie answered matter- of- factly, and she skipped off to help with the boom.

Natalie quickly walked down to the start of the boardwalk where the crew was getting the equipment ready. The long yellow boom lay folded neatly in the box truck. Three of the crew had already walked over a footbridge to the other side and were waiting for the poly rope to be thrown over. When the crew was ready, Natalie took the lanyard and easily tossed it over the river to the waiting crew members who quickly began hauling it across the water. The boom flew out of the box truck and straightened into a long yellow sausage that snaked its way across the river to the other side. They then tied the rope off on a big oak tree on the riverbank. Natalie helped the crew on her side tie the other end to a pine about fifty feet down stream. Everyone then watched the river water rush up to and flow under the boom while floating debris like leaves and sticks and oil were caught in the boom and floated downstream to where the near shore.

Once the boom was set, a vac truck backed down to the river’s edge. Natalie watched the driver connect the hoses to the huge tank and turn on the vacuum motor. The hiss of rushing air enveloped them all and everyone covered their ears. The other two vac trucks started up moments later, and soon Natalie could hear the slurping sound of oil and water being sucked up into the huge tanks. “This job won’t take long,” Natalie thought to herself, and she was right.

Chapter 11: Cleaning the Creek

Jason grabbed a bag of white sorbent oil pads and lifted it up onto his shoulder. He staggered slightly under its weight and then got his balance. “Are you OK with that?” Mr. Brown asked. “Yeah, I think so,” Jason answered a little unsure of himself. He felt the bag’s heavy weight and then thought of the long walk down the road and across the field to the creek. He made his decision and dropped the bag on the floor of the truck with a loud thump. “I think I’ll take this half-bag,” he said lifting another open bag with ease, and he jumped out of the truck and onto the road. “Good idea,” Mr. Brown smiled.

When the three other crew members were loaded with as many pads and oil-sorbent booms called “pigs” that they could carry, Jason lead them down the road past the police check point to the storm drain where he had built the dam. There, one of the crew, a large man with a gold tooth named Tom, used a crow bar to lift the heavy metal grate off the drain, and they threw oil sorbent pads down on the oil inside the catch basin. Jason knew that they’d leave the pads there for a while to soak up the oil and come back for them later, so he lead them across the grassy field toward Pine Brook. When they reached the brook, Tom looked at the oil covering the rocks, and twigs, and moss. He whistled and said, “Oh man! This brook is trashed. What are we going to do with this?” “My Dad says there’s not a lot we can do,” Jason answered sadly. “We’ll soak up as much oil as we can with these pads and leave the rest. He said Mother Nature would degrade it over time. I think we should dig it out.” Another crewmember, a tall thin man named Tony threw a large white pad onto a small pool of water. Immediately, the edges turned brown as it soaked up the oil. He said, “Can’t do that, man. Make a worse mess than just leaving it. Letting Mother Nature take care of it is best, once we soak up what oil we can.”

The three of them worked quickly covering the brook from the drainpipe to Satch River with white sorbent pads. They talked sparingly as they walked along. Tony happened to know a lot about the different kinds of mosses, and he pointed to each one he saw, naming it, and telling some amazing little fact about it. Most of it looked like peat moss. Back in the old days, some folks used to dress wounds with it to help prevent infections. Today, its dried and used in gardens and flowerpots. Jason wondered out loud if the oil would still be there next year and if the moss would be OK. Tom said this part of the stream would be mostly dead in the spring and would take several years to fully recover.

When they reached the river, Jason looked back and thought the creek looked eerie, a patchwork river of square white pads in a forest of brown, green, yellow, and red. He saw that the pads were slowly turning brown as they soaked up the oil and felt some sense of accomplishment. But he also felt odd and uncomfortable about the cleanup. He’d always been taught to clean up after himself. Here they couldn’t really do that and a lot of little forest critters were going to die.

They continued along the river toward the bridge scouring the nooks and eddies for signs of oil. They didn’t find much in the faster moving water, only the occasional stained leaf that dipped into the current. When they reached the bridge, however, there was still lots of oil swirling around the two eddies, so they laid out the oil sorbent booms around each to prevent the oil from escaping down the river and then covered each eddy with the rest of the white pads they were carrying.

Chapter 12: The Chief’s Surprise

By the time they were done, Jason noticed to his surprise that daylight was starting to fade. He looked at his watch to find it was 4 pm. “Time flies when you’re working,” he thought to himself. Lieutenant Roy was watching from the bridge and when they were done, he took them back to the scene of the accident where they found everyone was gathering for the end of the day. Jason saw Natalie talking with Dave, the oil truck driver, and as he approached them, he saw Dave reach out and shake Natalie’s hand. They both smiled, and then Dave walked away.

“Hi Natalie,” Jason said, “What’s going on?” “Hi Jason,” the Fire Chief wants to meet with us in a few minutes, so we’re hanging around until he’s ready. Then it’s time to go home. What a day! Were you able to clean up the creek and the river?” she asked. Jason frowned, “I guess so. The guys will be back in the morning to pick up the pads. Hopefully, we’ll get most of it. How about you?” “Yeah, the crew did great!” she said enthusiastically. “The vac trucks vacuumed up almost all the oil in the river, and the fire department blasted the oil off the stone walls to clean them. It looks great.” “Awww,” Jason complained, “I would liked to have seen that!” “It was really neat,” Natalie exclaimed. “But I wouldn’t want to get into a water fight with them. Those hoses really blast.” They both laughed.

Just then the Fire Chief walked into the crowd and whistled for everyone’s attention. “Excuse me, everyone,” He began. “I want a quick word before we end for this evening. These accidents are always avoidable. However, they happen, and we have to deal them. The lady in the other car, whose attention had been distracted by her dog, was taken to Memorial Hospital where she is resting comfortably.” The Fire Chief paused for a moment, and everyone clapped and gave a cheer. Then the Fire Chief continued. “Today, we did a great job responding to the oil spill, and I wanted to thank Roger’s Oil and N&J Environmental for quickly taking responsibility and getting the job done. Integral to this were a few people who acted quickly and without their work, I believe, this response would have been prolonged.” A low murmur went through the crowd. Natalie and Jason heard one person say, “He’s never said this before. What’s going on?”

“Without the up front work of Natalie Brown and her recon team who were on the scene within minutes, we wouldn’t have known the oil was headed into Georgetown for quite a while, and, I believe, Georgetown would have suffered far worse. Natalie and the recon team please step forward and accept a Georgetown Fire Department badge as our thanks.” When the Chief ended everyone laughed and clapped enthusiastically. Natalie and Jason hesitated, but Mr. Brown waved his arm urging them forward. They walked into the center of the crowd and up to the Fire Chief who handed them two large badges. Each was black with a golden fireman’s helmet and a fire axe/hose cross on top. Around the edge in gold letters were the words Georgetown Fire Department. They both grinned, said thanks, and shook the fire chief’s hand. “But where’s the rest of your recon team?” the Fire Chief asked with a puzzled look on his face. “This is the recon team, sir,” Natalie said pointing to her brother, “My brother, Jason!” Everyone laughed and the Fire Chief said, “Well, I want to shake your hand again, young man, job well done!”

Mr. Brown began to clap again and everyone joined him for another round of applause. He then walked into the crowd and said, “I also want to thank everyone for their help. But now we must be going, because I have two kids here who missed a day of school, and they have some homework to do.” “Awww, Dad!!!,” both Natalie and Jason protested.