Updated at 9:00 a.m.
Officials are now estimating that about 2,500 gallons of diesel spilled into Sitka Sound this weekend, after a fuel tank failed at the city’s Jarvis Street Power Plant.
That’s significantly less than the 7,000 gallons feared Sunday.
By Monday evening much of the spill had been cleaned up or dispersed — and officials were hoping that a storm would help finish off the rest.
When it failed over the weekend, the storage tank at the Jarvis Street Power Plant released about 30,000 gallons of diesel. Most of that was caught in a cement containment enclosure designed for exactly this sort of event. But when responders pumped the diesel back into the tank on Sunday, they found about 7,000 gallons missing.
Some of that diesel leaked into the city’s storm water drainage system and spilled into Sitka Sound at Eagle Beach, near the mouth of Indian River.
But a significant amount likely evaporated — as much as 4,000 gallons, according to estimates from the Coast Guard.
Bob Mattson is the state’s on-scene coordinator for oil spills in Southeast. He works for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
“When oil is exposed to the air and the elements it undergoes a weathering process,” Mattson said. “A lot of it is lost due to evaporation — and of course people in Sitka know what the weather was over the weekend, had some pretty nice days, especially on Friday and Saturday. So we know that the amount of oil which actually evaporated is going to be significant — with diesel oil it is — but we won’t ever really know exactly how much.”
For now, officials are estimating that about 2,500 gallons may have made it into Sitka Sound.
Mattson says he’s pleased with the city’s cleanup efforts so far. Coast Guard and city personnel laid absorbent material throughout the storm water system and on the beach on Sunday and Monday, catching and mopping up much of the spill.
By Monday afternoon, the only sign of the cleanup were several layers of containment boom in a small area around Eagle Beach. Mattson says what’s left is a sheen on the water.
“It looks bad,” he said. “But fortunately it’s a thin layer, and in terms of a volume, there’s not a lot.”
The spill is near Indian River and the Sitka National Historical Park, but speaking Monday afternoon, Superintendent Mary Miller said that so far, no diesel has showed up in the park.
“We swept the park first thing this morning to see if there was anything that was moving in our direction,” Miller said. “And not even any evidence, not any smell, not any anything. And so right now it looks like things are as good as could be expected.”
Officials say there have been no confirmed reports of wildlife affected by the spill. Subsistence users are being asked to avoid the area, but the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has determined there is no threat to commercial fisheries.
Officials are also anticipating some help from Mother Nature. Storms moving into the area this week are expected to help break down and disperse the diesel.
Mattson says that predicted rain means that Indian River will likely be running higher than usual.
“Any of the oil sheen that wants to move along there … into the mouth of Indian River will meet this big wall of freshwater and it will shove it back out,” Mattson said. “So that’s good, that protects the mouth of the river.”
Meanwhile, officials hope that wind and wave action will break down the remaining diesel so that bacteria in the water can take care of the rest.
“Oil wants to break down naturally in salt water,” Mattson said. “It gets into smaller and smaller droplets, and this wave energy is going to force it into smaller and smaller micron-sized droplets, and that’s available for bacteria … who can actually use that as a food source.”
Officials don’t yet know what caused the tank to fail, or why the oil leaked out of the containment area, though the investigation is focused on a faulty valve.
Mattson says it’s too soon to consider whether there will be any fines or penalties associated with the spill. That often depends on how proactive the responsible party – in this case, the city — is during the cleanup. Sitka had actually staged an oil spill response drill this spring in almost the exact location of the actual spill.
For his part, Mattson says he’s here for the duration.
“I’ve got a one-way ticket to Sitka,” he said. “I won’t be returning to Juneau until I’m satisfied that things are good.”
Original story
A storage tank at Sitka’s Jarvis Street Diesel Plant failed over the weekend, spilling an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 gallons of diesel into Sitka Sound near the mouth of Indian River.
Teams from the city, state, and Coast Guard are working to contain and clean up the spill and to find out what caused it.
As of Sunday night, it wasn’t yet clear exactly how much diesel had actually made it into Sitka Sound.
The Jarvis Street Diesel Plant is owned by the city — it’s Sitka’s backup power station — and City Administrator Mark Gorman said the failed storage tank released about 30,000 gallons of diesel into a cement containment enclosure. Some portion of that — perhaps as much as 7,000 gallons — then leaked into the storm water system, which empties into the ocean at Eagle Beach.
Gorman said that though the release is near the mouth of Indian River, so far there’s no sign of diesel in the river and the spill has been contained to Eagle Beach and the water near Cannon Island.
The Fire Department estimated that about 40 people from the city, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Coast Guard, and the National Park Service were on site Sunday, using boom and absorbent material to contain and soak up the spill. Speaking Sunday evening, Gorman said the efforts so far have had a visible impact.
“I was down at the impacted area this evening twice, and you can smell it in the air, but there’s no sheen on the water at this point in time, so it seems to be dispersing pretty rapidly,” Gorman said.
According to a press release from the city, the Fire Department first received a call around 11 a.m. Saturday reporting a heavy smell of diesel near Eagle Beach. Assistant Fire Chief Al Stevens says the department found a small patch of diesel in the water, but couldn’t locate its source. He says responders thought it had perhaps come from a fishing vessel in the area, and contacted both the state and Coast Guard.
The city then received a second call on Sunday, reporting sheen on the water near Cannon Island. This time, the Fire Department traced the spill to a storm drain on Sawmill Creek Road, and eventually followed it back to the Jarvis Street Diesel Plant.
Around 1 p.m. Sunday, The Fire Department initiated its Incident Command System, marshaling resources from the city, state, Coast Guard, and National Park Service. Stevens says the leak was stopped around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, and teams worked throughout the afternoon to mop up the spill. “It certainly is a big deal,” he said.
But Gorman added that diesel is much easier to clean up than, say, crude oil.
“Diesel is not oil,” Gorman said. “If this was an oil spill, I think the 7,000 gallons going into the Sound would be alarming. It’s not good to have diesel going into the sound, but diesel does evaporate and dissipate quite rapidly.”
It’s not yet clear why the tank failed, or how the diesel leaked out of the containment enclosure. The city, state and Coast Guard are all involved in that investigation.
