Commentary: Trash crew handled spill with professionalism

Thursday is trash day in our neighborhood. After the CR&R truck went down the block in front of my house, I saw the driver leave his stopped vehicle carrying a bucket of sand and sweep the sand onto dark spots in the street corresponding to where the truck had stopped to pick up trash containers.

Soon a car pulled up in front of my home and a route manager named Frank, in a reflective vest, got out, inspected and took cellphone photos of the spots in front of my house.

In response to my question, Frank told me that when the driver got to the end of the block, he discovered that a hydraulic hose had broken under the truck and leaked every time the truck lifted a trash container. The driver immediately called in and reported the problem.

Frank had come to check on the situation, and he ordered a cleanup crew to come out. I had more spots in front of my house than other places because my neighbor and I put out four trash cans together, and that is evidently where the hose first broke.

Then a van with two workers arrived. Frank was on site to supervise the whole operation, which was mainly in front of the storm drain by my house.

To be sure nothing went down the storm drain, the workers covered the entrance with barrier bags.

The sand was actually like kitty litter in that it was an absorbent. The workers brushed the sand onto the spots and dribbles and then picked up all they could remove. They poured and brushed a special liquid on all the spots and dribbles.

The special liquid actually lifted the contamination out of the street surface. Then they pressure-washed the whole area. While the pressure washer was in operation, a vacuum pump from the van was sucking up all the dirty water from in front of the bags laid across the storm drain entrance. To be sure they captured all the chemicals they had applied, they swept up all leaves and trash and put it in trash bags.

This cleanup action took almost six hours from the time the spill was first noticed.

The next morning the cleanup crew returned and took more hours to treat the rest of the spots in the same way. The street is still stained, but there is nothing left that could ever be washed down the drain.

We are all asked to keep chemicals and contaminants from going down our storm drains and polluting our waterways and eventually the ocean. CR&R sets a strong example, reminding us how careful we should be when we accidentally spill something that could pollute.

The driver finished the route with a different truck.

DIANE HILL lives in Costa Mesa.