Year-End Sitka Fuel Oil Spill Cleaned Up

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Category: News

Created on Thursday, 02 January 2025 13:12

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By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
    A heating oil spill that seeped into the waters of Indian River in December is contained, and crews have removed the faulty oil tank and a large amount of contaminated soil from the spill site on Metlakatla Street, the cleanup coordinator has reported.
    Over the past weekend workers dug up and removed between 15 and 20 cubic yards of oil-laden soil, said Rachel Krajewski, the state Department of Environmental Conservation spill prevention and response coordinator for the incident.

Troy Tydingco, Alaska Department of Fish and Game fishery biologist, on December 20, stands next to a 500-gallon tank that had been leaking into Indian River. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

    The spill was first reported Dec. 20 after a National Park Service employee walking along Indian River smelled oil and saw the sheen where oil was entering the river in Sitka National Historical Park.
    Speaking by phone from her office in Juneau, Krajewski said it’s likely that the oil reached the river through a culvert.
    “Since they did the excavation, it sounds like the sheening in the river has completely stopped, which is great,” said Krajewski. “My understanding is that there was the spill on site, and then there may have been a culvert that heating oil was traveling through to get to the river, so I’m not anticipating... any impacted soil, really, on the Park Service property, since the pathway was through that culvert.”
    DEC responded to the spill in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard, National Park Service and City and Borough of Sitka.
    “The city swooped in and they took the tank out for the responsible party, and I think they brought a truck in and were sucking up puddles of emulsified oil with their equipment,” Krajewski said. “The Park Service chipped in, Coast Guard chipped in, Fish and Game was on site at one point. Really happy with the community turnout for this response,” she said.
    The contaminated dirt removed from the site is in storage awaiting the arrival of a special gondola which will be used to ship it to a landfill in Roosevelt, Washington, she said. That hazmat gondola is expected to arrive in Sitka on January 10.
    “That soil is in a stockpile, it’s secure. It’s under a liner and pending proper disposal; it’s going to have to be hauled out of state,” Krajewski said.
    Oil containment booms placed along the right bank of Indian River during the cleanup remain in place today “out of an abundance of caution, but they haven’t needed to change them,” Krajewski said. The smell of oil, which was pervasive in the area in the week following the leak, has since faded.
    The DEC official said that oil spilled may be as much as 250 gallons, but it’s only an estimate since the amount in the 500-gallon tank before the spill isn’t known.
    “It sounds like the tank had been out of service for years, and so they don’t have recent fuel (bills),” Krajewski said. “Normally, we might look at fueling records to get an idea of how much fuel is in there. And we don’t have that available, so I don’t know if we’ll ever actually have a definitive number. I know the tank was not full when it spilled.”
    While the spill is contained, the DEC will continue to monitor the site, she said.
    The leaky oil tank was located on the Sitka Counseling campus, and DEC said the organization was cooperative in the cleanup process. The state does not plan to pursue legal action over the spill.
    “No, we do not intend to take any enforcement actions for this case,” Krajewski said. “The responsible party has been extremely eager to make it right, and get it cleaned up, and they’ve been working with us very closely, and so there’s no concerns regarding any compliance or enforcement actions.”
    Oil spills can be reported online to https://dec.alaska.gov/spar/ppr/spill-information/reporting, or by phone at 1-800-478-9300, and incidents can also be reported to Sitka’s fire hall.