Diesel fuel spill reaches Lake Superior

Published 12:46 pm Thursday, July 11, 2013

LITTLE MARAIS — Regulators are monitoring a small diesel fuel spill that reached Lake Superior.

A semi overturned on Highway 61 near Little Marais Tuesday afternoon, spilling about 75 to 80 gallons of diesel out of its fuel tank.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said a small amount of that fuel travelled about 1,000 feet down a ditch to Lake Superior. Crews placed absorbent booms in the ditch to block the flow.

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The MPCA says no recoverable amount of fuel accumulated in the lake other than in some eddies created by rocks along the shore. But it left some fuel odors and a petroleum sheen on rocks and in the water along about 1,350 feet of shoreline.