Cleanup and investigation continues in the case of a Feb. 14 fuel tanker crash and diesel spill along Virginia 42 and Big Walker Creek in the White Gate community of Giles County.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is working on an "enforcement plan" for the crash of the tanker owned by Foster Fuels of Brookneal, according to an e-mail dated Wednesday from Allen Linkenhoker, the department's pollution response coordinator. That plan will be negotiated with Foster Fuels, the e-mail states.

"Any enforcement action that may result from these negotiations must be approved by the State Water Control Board at its next regularly scheduled meeting. ... The earliest an enforcement action could go in front of the SWCB would be in the fourth quarter of 2008 or the first quarter of 2009," according to the e-mail.

More than 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel and kerosene spilled from the rig's ruptured storage tanks, saturating land along the creek. An additional 2,000 gallons went into the water, spreading an oil slick more than a mile downstream and into a private wildlife refuge.

Foster Fuels may have skipped a required federal notification process for such spills, a federal official said at the time. Inspectors from the Environmental Protection Agency were called in to help with the investigation.

A misdemeanor charge of faulty equipment is still pending in Giles County General District Court against the driver, Jeffrey Arnold Claytor, 47, of Bedford County. At the time of the crash, Virginia State Police said speed was a factor.

-- Tonia Moxley