Desert NewsSALT LAKE CITY — One month after oil soiled waterways in Salt Lake City, Chevron and government officials will be on hand Monday at a town hall meeting to update residents about efforts to clean up the Red Butte Creek oil spill.

The meeting will mark one month since the oil leak was discovered on July 12. Members of the unified command will a

ttend the meeting, including officials from Chevron, Salt Lake City, the Environmental Protection Agency and Salt Lake Valley Health Department.

“Two days after the spill, a town hall meeting was held and a promise was made to meet again with residents in a month’s time,” said Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker. “We know residents and business owners continue to have questions and want to know what has been done and what yet needs to be done to properly address the impacts of the disaster.”

At the meeting, officials will also unveil an outline of their plan to restore the area.

The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at Clayton Middle School, 1470 S. 1900 East.

Authorities also announced crews will conduct a second water flush in Red Butte Creek at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. The flush will last about two hours and will help wash any residual oil from the creek bed downstream where it can be captured, according to a statement released by the unified command.

Residents near the creek are urged to stay away from the rising water during the flushing operation.
— Josh Smith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 22, 2010

Crews responded from all of H2O Environmental’s offices to assist the cleanup effort undertaken by Chevron as a result of a crude oil leak from a pipeline in the foothills above Salt Lake City. H2O currently has 22 personnel on site performing multiple tasks under the direction of Chevron, the owner of the pipeline.

From http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/18/ap/business/main6596479.shtml:

Chevron Vows To Pay Expenses, Damages For 33,000-gallon Oil Spill In Salt Lake City Creek

(AP) SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Salt Lake City attorneys expect Chevron Corp. will quickly agree to a financial settlement related to last weekend’s pipeline spill that dumped 33,000 gallons of crude oil into city waterways, a spokeswoman for Mayor Ralph Becker said Friday.

Becker has vowed to make Chevron pay for the cleanup, and the company has repeatedly pledged to cover the city’s expenses, as well as damage or reimbursement claims from others.

A deal could be announced next week, said Lisa Harrison Smith, the mayor’s spokeswoman.

“We won’t be satisfied until it’s done,” she said.

(From Okaloosa County & State Emergency Management Officials)

The latest projections from NOAA indicate weathered oil from the leading edge of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill could impact the Florida Panhandle as early as this week due to a shift in winds and currents. Any potential impacts to Florida’s shoreline will be highly weathered, in the form of tar balls, oil sheen, tar mats or mousse – a pudding-like oil/water mixture that could be brown, rust or orange in color. No tar balls have been found on Okaloosa beaches to this point.

Oil sheen is now in the Navarre area, which is just about 30 miles away from Destin. The sheen was reported by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approximately six miles from Navarre Pier on June 3.

(From the City of Destin)

The City of Destin is now expecting oil sheen in the area within the next 72 hours. Okaloosa contractors will be deploying boom today in preparation for arrival. 11,000 feet arrived last night and another 25,000 feet is scheduled to arrive today.

The apartment complex consists of nine apartment buildings, each of which has twenty units. It appears at though only one building is impacted. Within that building, a relatively large pool of elemental mercury was discovered by workers who were replacing the carpet. The tenant of the unit had recently been evicted. Up to 20 pounds of mercury has been spilled within the apartment. The source of the mercury is unknown, and timing of the release is also unknown. The Carson City Sheriff’s office is investigating the nature of the release.

EPA and NDEP conducted Lumex screening of the apartments. Mercury vapor concentrations in the impacted unit exceeded 50,000 ng/cubic meter. Significant mercury vapor concentrations were detected in 4 other aparment units. Several other units had mercury vapor concentrations that exceeded 1,000 ng/cubic meter. Based on these findings Carson City Fire evacuated all units within the impacted apartment building. These residents were relocated to a hotel. Several of these units have families with small children. Carson City Fire/Health ordered the property owner to pay for the relocation and to conduct the cleanup. The property owner and/or his insurance company have been funding the cleanup and relocation. An environmental contractor arrived onsite around 8:00 PM on 8/25, and began securing the impacted unit.

The residents of the impacted units were advised to seek medical monitoring from their physicians. EPA provided phone numbers at U.C. Irvine (which were provided by ATSDR) for residents and their physicians to call if they had medical questions. Carson City Fire and Carson City Health are continuing to coordinate issues relating to the displaced residents.