Company pledges to take on costs of road damage

PORTALES — The company that controls a facility from which mineral oil spilled, covering downtown Portales on Jan. 25, has pledged to incur any costs associated with road damage, according to the city’s public works director.

John DeSha told the Portales City Council on Tuesday night that in conversations with J.D. Heiskell, he has been told “they’re absolutely on board with handling all those costs.”

Mineral oil, a solvent that DeSha said will inevitably damage the roads in some way, was released from a valve in J.D. Heiskell’s Portales feed manufacturing facility by vandals, according to officials. The oil leaked onto First Street, Second Street and Abilene Avenue.

Officials said last month that repair costs could be more than $40,000 per block.

While First and Second are considered parts of U.S. 70 and under the jurisdiction of the state, Abilene is the city’s responsibility, DeSha said.

He said J.D. Heiskell has agreed to pay engineers to test the road to determine how much damage has been caused, and determine if oil has seeped under the road.

“If the oil is below, they’ll have to completely remove the roadway, remove the contaminated soil, and then come back in with new material and put the new road on top of it,” he said.

Councilor Veronica Cordova asked if rain could cause oil to seep out from the road, to which DeSha answered that rain is a “big concern” in the affected areas.

“We’re ready with more sand and equipment to put out there to keep people from having problems on the road,” he said.

DeSha added that a representative of J.D. Heiskell told him the company is working on methods to prevent a spill from happening again, but results won’t be revealed until it submits a corrective action report to the state environment department.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting:

• Councilors approved a request to cancel and resubmit a bid for sewer lift station rehabilitation.

Chief Procurement Officer Carla Weems explained that a bid for the project was won by Adame Construction Inc., but the firm never submitted the proper paperwork to the New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration.

• Councilors approved two separate grant applications for improvements at the Portales Municipal Airport: $116,333 for the primary runway and $101,204 for the crosswind runway.