Clean up efforts underway after deadly crash on I-94

CASS COUNTY, N.D. (Valley News Live) - A day after a fatal crash on I-94, crews in North Dakota are still surveying on what needs to be done with the anti-freeze that was dumped into a ditch during the incident. More 6,500 gallons of the liquid spilled out.

“We have some concerns with the spring runoff coming that we need to get that cleaned up.” said Cpt. Bryan Niewind of the North Dakota Highway Patrol.

According to Karl Rockeman, the director of water quality for the North Dakota Dept. of Environment Quality, said the situation could have been bad for the surrounding area. However, they dodged a bullet because the anti-freeze did not end up in the water system.

“That was a relief that it didn’t get into our water ways, our creeks and rivers nearby in that vicinity. And that it was contained to the road ditch and that was definitely positive news,” said Rockeman. “The good news is that we’re familiar with. It’s the green stuff that we put in our car engines and so we have a little bit of knowledge of how to deal with that.”

Cpt. Niewind said this crash is just the latest in what has been a brutal winter. He is asking people to slow down and to be more careful on the roadways.

“This winter has been really, really difficult winter for us, we’ve covered, I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me, but over 800 crashes since November 1 so that’s probably double what we normally do.” said Niewind.

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