Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU - It will cost up to $150,000 to fix and clean up after a diesel fuel leak found in a fuel system at the city-owned wastewater treatment plant, officials say.

Utility Superintendent Scott Jeffers says an estimated 10,000 gallons to 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel escaped from buried pipes at the Mendenhall Valley wastewater treatment plant earlier this year.

Diesel fuel is used to power some of the treatment plant's equipment.

Unusually high fuel bills were the first clue there might be a leak, which was discovered in March. Jeffers says it is impossible to determine the exact amount of spilled diesel.

Jeffers says the leaked diesel fuel is several feet underground, sitting atop ground water.

The plant's fuel system has been shut down since then and recovery efforts are under way.

The city is using a special pump that sucks up only diesel fuel, and Jeffers is hopeful all of it can be reused. The price of diesel fuel skyrocketed in recent months to more than $5 a gallon.

Crews have recovered about 7,750 gallons of diesel so far.

He said drilling and testing have indicated the oil has not spread beyond the treatment plant's property line, or to the Mendenhall River, which sits next to the plant.

"We're extremely thankful for that," he said.

But the fuel could shift to other properties, said Scot Tiernan, a spill response coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

"Any time you have something in the ground that can still be mobile, it can move off property," Tiernan said.

Tiernan said the city was doing a diligent job of trying to recover the oil but should let the plant's neighbors know of any potential problems. He said a cleanup process involving this much diesel fuel would likely be long-term.

Jeffers said the city had not told the plant's neighbors about the spill because tests indicated the fuel was not encroaching on surrounding properties.

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