Tuesday, March 3, 2015

OFFICIALS FEAR CLEANUP OF THE WORST OIL SPILL IN THE LOWER YAKIMA VALLEY IN 17 YEARS COULD TAKE WEEKS TO COMPLETE. STORING WASTE OIL IN A TANK WITHOUT SECONDARY CONTAINMENT AND NEXT TO A WATER COURSE IS PRETTY MUCH A CRIME (OR AT LEAST IT SHOULD BE, IF IT IS NOT). THE RESPONSIBLE OFFICIALS NEED TO BE FIRED OR LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. PERIOD.











MARCH 3, 2015

SUNNYSIDE, WASHINGTON. (AP)

Storing waste oil in a tank without secondary containment and next to a water course is pretty much a crime (or at least it should be, if it is not).  The responsible officials need to be fired.  Period.

The state Ecology Department says it could take weeks to clean up as much as 1,500 gallons of used motor oil that spilled into the Yakima River at Sunnyside.
The oil leaked Sunday from a tank at a former feedlot and traveled through 10 miles of irrigation canals and 14 miles of a meandering stretch of the river.
The Yakima Herald-Republic reports the area includes the Sunnyside Wildlife Refuge.

Ecology Department spokeswoman Joye Redfield-Wilder says it’s the worst oil spill in the Lower Yakima Valley in 17 years.

A cleanup contractor is using absorbent pads, protective booms and vacuum pumps.  This is only effective for the lighter constituent of the oil.  Used motor oil contains heavy amounts of the heavier oil constituents that are not water soluble that stick to the sediments and soil and is only recoverable through sediment/soil excavation.

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SUNNYSIDE, WASHINGTON

Crews could spend weeks cleaning up as much as 1,500 gallons of used motor oil that has leaked into a series of irrigation drains emptying into the Yakima River and has created a sheen visible as far south as Prosser.

“It’s going to be awhile,” said Jeff Lewis, spill response team supervisor for the state Department of Ecology’s Yakima office.

The leak started Sunday, and by midday Monday oil had traveled an estimated 24 miles, first through about 10 miles of irrigation canals and drainages, including Sulphur Creek, and then 14 miles of a slow, meandering stretch of the Yakima River full of backwaters and oxbows. The area is home to the Sunnyside Wildlife Refuge, a hunting and fishing area that provides habitat for birds, river otters, beavers and other animals and is managed by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. 

There was no information on whether animals had been harmed by the spill, but authorities were asking people to be on the lookout. Local, state, Yakama tribal and federal officials were responding to the spill by Monday afternoon.

Officials suspect that an above-ground tank at a former Sunnyside feedlot leaked the oil into an underground drain system that leads into irrigation drainages, including Sulphur Creek, which empties into the Yakima River near Mabton. The cause of the leak is still under investigation.

Crews from NRC, a private environmental firm based in Great River, N.Y., spent Monday using vacuum pumps to siphon water from several places along the surface of the creek for treatment and disposal. Ecology Department and NRC employees deployed absorbent pads and protective booms at several locations along the creek and river, including at a fish hatchery on the Yakima River in Prosser and about 900 feet upstream from the mouth of Sulphur Creek in an especially slow-moving section of the river.

Luke Deaton, whose family owns the portion of the former feedlot where the leak occurred, said he has cooperated with authorities and continues to do so.
“We’re just very willing to work with the Department of Ecology and the EPA and whatever we need to get done,” Deaton said.

He said the family stores hay and grain at the property, which is the former Monson feedlot on Outlook Road.

Deaton declined further comment.

The leak is the first major oil spill in the Lower Valley in at least 17 years, said Joye Redfield-Wilder, a spokeswoman for the Ecology Department.

Fish and Wildlife Department officials encourage people who spot oiled animals to call the hotline at 800-22BIRDS (800-222-4737) or email OiledWildlifeReporting@dfw.wa.gov.

Officials with the Yakama Nation visited the site of the spill Monday afternoon, and some helped NRC crews clean up.

The sheen reached the dam in Prosser, where crews deployed booms in front of the fish screens in a canal near the Yakama Nation’s fish hatchery.

The spill and the booms did not disrupt the hatchery work, said Joe Blodgett, the hatchery manager.
Source: yakimaheralnd.com