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