March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

DEP finds oil in Eastport man’s pond

EASTPORT — The Department of Environmental Protection is investigating an oil spill that fouled a goose pond in the Quoddy Village section of Eastport.

William Lee found his two geese covered with oil last week and also discovered a film of oil on the pond he had dug for them next to Toll Bridge Road.

On the advice of a veterinarian, Lee filled a child’s wading pool with fresh water and washed the geese off with a mild soap solution. The geese, a 40-year-old male and a 10-year-old female, are doing well, Lee said Friday. He has fenced off the pond and relegated the geese to the wading pool.

DEP Investigator Darrell Luce inspected the site Thursday. Luce said the substance in the pond and in a ditch leading to the pond was “definitely oil of a lighter type, such as kerosene or diesel. It’s very difficult to say right now how much oil there is, how long it’s been here or where it came from.”

Luce said his department gets many calls this time of year about suspected oil spills that turn out to be marsh sheen, a naturally occuring film that forms in the early summer on still water.

“It looks just like oil, but of course it doesn’t smell or feel like oil,” he said. “I’ve taken samples, but the smell alone around the pond and in the ditch and field above it is enough to convince me it’s oil.”

Luce said there was evidence that the oil was spilled some time ago because of the presence in the ditch of a rust-colored bacterial growth that feeds on petroleum products.

“Since different types of oil decompose at different rates, it’s difficult to say how long it’s been here, but the amount of bacteria suggests that it has had a fair amount of time to grow. It is entirely possible that the oil was spilled during the winter or even last fall. The oil has the appearance of being well along in the decomposing process.”

How much oil was spilled, Luce said, “is very hard to estimate, with it scattered in puddles in the field and so on. Considering the amount I see in the pond and considering that the pond acts as a catch basin for all the runoff through here, my very rough estimate would be 5 to 10 gallons.”

Because the oil appears to be decomposing rapidly, Luce said it was not a serious environmental threat, “although it is certainly dangerous to the geese and to other birds that may use the pond and ingest it.”

Quoddy Village is the site of a massive construction project for Eastport’s new waste-water treatment system, and Lee’s pond is about 200 yards below a huge pile of fill that has accumulated during the project.

Lee said he believed the oil was from construction vehicles and that the fill pile contained soil contaminated with spilled fuel.

“There’s an underground culvert from that fill mountain they’ve built that goes right to where the oil first shows up on the ground,” Lee said. “That fill covered up the well that feeds the pond. People tell me they’ve seen oily dirt going into that pile, but, of course, then it gets covered up.”

Luce said he saw no evidence that the oil was from the fill pile, “but I can’t say if it is or it isn’t. There is, obviously, a series of underground pipes and culverts in that area, meaning fuel could have been spilled or dumped in a number of places and gradually made its way into the pond.”

Luce said he stopped in Quoddy Village while on his way to another assignment, mostly to confirm that the substance was oil and not marsh sheen. The case will be handled by another DEP investigator who will determine what, if any, cleanup measures could be effective and will try to locate the source of the fuel.


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