‘We depend on Weber Canyon’: Fire chief discusses impact of regular semi-truck rollovers

MORGAN COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — After numerous spills from semi-trucks, the Mountain Green Fire Protection District is discussing potential concerns about environmental hazards.

on Tuesday,

a semi-truck tipped over on I-84 in Weber Canyon and spilled approximately 250-gallon totes of liquid fertilizer potassium hydroxide.

As a result, traffic came to a standstill for several hours near milepost 90 while crews with the Mountain Green Fire Protection District (MGFPD) and Utah Highway patrol (UHP) cleaned up the spill. While some were concerned about being stuck in traffic, MGFPD Chief Brian Brendel says this spill may indicate a more dangerous issue.

“This is the 23rd semi that we have had wrecked in the exact same place at mile marker 90 on that particular curve since 2020,” Chief Brendel said, “And it’s something that concerns me greatly, living in Morgan County and Mountain Green.”

So far, the semi-truck spills have been somewhat benign. Yesterday’s spill was also cleaned up relatively quickly, though potassium hydrochloride is still an irritant according to Brendel.

Courtesy: Morgan County Fire Protection District.

For the residents in Morgan County, however, a potential Hazmat spill raises more than just traffic concerns.

“Morgan is kind of isolated. We depend on Weber Canyon. That’s how I would get extra fire trucks if I had a big fire. That’s how we get our sick people to the hospital 10 minutes away through the canyon,” Chief Brendel said, “And if that is jeopardized by a really bad hazmat incident and it doesn’t take much…just a tanker full of gasoline on fire is enough of a problem there to shut down the canyon for days.”

Additionally, Ogden Canyon has started limiting the length of trucks in the canyon, meaning Weber Canyon had seen increased semi-truck traffic and the potential for a rollover has become more prevalent for Chief Brendel.

“We have had multiple rollovers of semis ignoring the existing signage or just going too fast and rolling in the exact same way each time,” Brendel said, “The speed limit is 55 miles an hour in the canyon for trucks, but a lot of trucks ignore it, because the cars are going by at 65 or 70 miles an hour.”

One solution that Chief Brendel thinks could help is enforcing the same speed limit for all drivers in Weber Canyon. He also believes increasing enforcement could be helpful but could be difficult to implement with available resources.

The issue may also lie with the actual road, as well, according to Brendel

“We need something else. It was explained to me by an engineer, a traffic engineer, that the road needs to be re-engineered, but it was built back in the 60s,” Brendel stated, “And I don’t think we’re going to be seeing that done anytime soon, so you got to slow people down.”

No matter what the issue or the solution is, Chief Brendel says that he worries about potential rollovers, and the hazmat issues and blockages that follow.

“When you get traffic backed up like that yesterday, you know…I was waiting for the next wreck that happened in the backup. And sure enough, it did. A car ran into the back of a stopped semi,” He said, “So we’re stuck doing multiple incidents that result from these things.

Brendel added, “I don’t mean to be dramatic, but the bottom line is that we can’t get the ambulance where it needs to go the hospital or we can’t get a fire truck to help us with the wildland fires we get”

He concluded, “It’s something we’re always very concerned about.”