Crews continue cleanup after fuel spill into Fox River in Aurora
By Jenette Sturges jsturges@stmedianetwork.com December 29, 2011 7:19PM
Workers from SET Environmental Inc. of Whieeling place absorbant pads to soak up diesel fuel on the surface of water draining into the Fox River at the Sullivan Road Bridge on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011, after 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from the Federal Aviation Administration facility in Aurora on Wednesday. | Steven Buyansky~Sun-Times Media
Article Extras
Updated: January 8, 2012 9:57PM
AURORA — Cleanup crews continued their work vacuuming and soaking up diesel oil flowing into the Fox River on Thursday.
The source of the spill was the Federal Aviation Administration facility at 619 W. Indian Trail, where diesel fuel overflowed through the top of a malfunctioning underground fuel storage tank, onto the pavement and into a Fox Metro Water Reclamation District sanitary sewer. Water flowing through the sewer follows an unnamed creek that runs along Sullivan Road and empties into the Fox River under the Sullivan Road bridge.
On Thursday, about a dozen workers from SET Environmental Inc. were working along the creek and around the west shore of the Fox River to contain and soak up the fuel.
Workers cordoned off a few hundred feet of the river along the west bank with yellow boom and were soaking up the red diesel fuel with absorbent boom and pads. Workers also collected the red-tinted fuel on a boom further upstream on the feeder creek at Route 31 and Sullivan Road, and at Fairview Drive, where a truck vacuumed diesel off the top of the creek.
A SET manager at the cleanup site said the spill was well-contained and that no wildlife had been found contaminated or dead. The contaminated shoreline is also the site of a wetland conservation area.
When FAA officials first reported the spill to the Aurora Fire Department around 1 a.m. Wednesday, they estimated that between 20 and 100 gallons of fuel were spilled, and cleanup was postponed until later in the morning, according to the city. Hours later, FAA officials informed the city that the spill was much larger, nearly 1,500 gallons.
Because of the discrepancies in early estimates of how much fuel was spilled, the emergency response office of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency will be discussing the incident with the FAA to ensure proper safety protocols were followed, said Dennis McMurray of the IEPA.
An unknown quantity of fuel made its way to the river, resulting in a sheen approximately 8 feet wide extending for 1.5 miles. About 900 gallons of the fuel had been recovered from the storm sewer, creek and river by early Thursday afternoon, according to McMurray.
According to the city, the natural flow of the river kept the spill confined to the river’s west bank, opposite the city water treatment plant, and there was no danger to the city’s water supply.
Cleanup will continue “until they’ve got all they can get,” said McMurray. He said it is likely the FAA will also be responsible for cleaning soil contaminated by the spill.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment