An oil spill next to the salmon-bearing Tatchun Creek was cleaned up before it could get into the waterway, Carmacks RCMP Const. Don McPhee said this morning.

McPhee said a tractor-trailer unit owned by MacKenzie Petroleums of Dawson City was hauling a sea-container full of five-gallon pails of motor and gear oil when the container broke loose from the trailer at 9:30 p.m. Friday.

The container separated from the north-bound truck on the corner at the bottom of the Tatchun Creek hill, McPhee said.

'The driver maintained control coming out of the turn and was uninjured,' he said. 'The container separated from the trailer and ended up in the ditch, probably about 10 metres from the actual Tatchun Creek.'

Fortunately, the officer explained, the oil spilled into the divet created by the container where it hit the ditch. None escaped into the creek.

McPhee said the container was removed from the site Sunday, along with several dump truck loads of dirt.

The local Carmacks official from the Department of Environment was on the scene soon after the accident, and was joined later by three other department officials from Whitehorse and Faro.

At last count, McPhee said he saw about 30 empty five-gallon containers.

There have been no charges laid and the cause of the accident is still under investigation, he said.