Fuel oil lake leak under investigation

An investigation has begun into the leak of home heating oil into a lake in North Pennsylvania, US. The leak occurred on Friday March 28th, according to a spokesperson from the Department of Environmental Protection, Colleen Connolly. It is not currently known how much oil has leaked into the lake, but work has started on the clean up.

The investigation will seek to determine how an undetermined amount of dyed number 2 fuel oil was able to enter Lake Ariel. Currently, the Department of Environmental Protection has identified that an overfill of fuel occurred at a facility less than a mile away from the lake, while oil was being transferred into an above ground storage tank.

This overfill occurred at Howe Oil and Convenient Market, causing fuel oil to spill into an emergency containment area. The site makes use of underground tanks for the storage of fuel oil for retail sale, as well as above ground tanks for the distribution of large quantities of oil. Clean up operations were started on the same day as the incident by John T Howe Inc - the registered owner of the tanks - but the department was not informed of the leak.   

The presence of oil in lake was reported to the Department of Environmental Protection on Monday (March 3rd) evening and an inspector was dispatched to the site the following morning. As well as overseeing the clean up operations, the department is looking into why is what not informed of the incident on the day that it occurred. 

Remedial action is underway to remove the oil from the lake and to minimise the environmental impact. Booms have been installed to capture and contain the oil and interceptor trenches are being installed to stop the oil spreading any further. The department is looking into who is the responsible party or the leak and exactly how much oil entered the lake.

The lake has already been affected by a previous incident that occurred around eight months ago. Around 10,000 fish were killed after the wrong algae-control chemicals were released into the water.