State, federal officials respond to 142,800-gallon fuel spill on remote Alaska island
By APTuesday, January 12, 2010
142,800 gallons of fuel spilled on Alaska island
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An estimated 142,800 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from a storage tank on an island in Alaska’s remote Aleutian chain.
The Coast Guard says 1,000 gallons from the Monday spill on Adak Island entered a creek and flowed into a small boat harbor.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation says the fuel flowed from an underground storage tank as a ship moored at a pier pumped fuel to the tank.
The flow reached a drainage system that collects water from around the underground tanks and sends it into the creek. The amount overwhelmed the system’s oil and water separator.
The fuel tank is owned by Adak Petroleum. Workers discovered the spill, halted pumping and set up boom to contain the fuel.
Adak Island is 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage.
