An unknown volume of diesel fuel spilled from a fuel truck onto a road in Aniak sometime on the afternoon of Feb. 16, and the city and community are working to absorb the fuel and move contaminated ice and snow to a containment site.
On Feb. 20, Aniak City Manager Lenore Kameroff said that more than 150 gallons of fuel had been recovered from the spill site using absorbent materials, and said that the city was working with local tribal organizations and community members to take the next steps.
“Once we know how many hands we'll have to help, then we'll build our containment area for the affected ice and snow and decide from there if we still need to close the road or not,” Kameroff said.
Pictures posted on Facebook by the City of Aniak on Feb. 17 showed a pool of fuel roughly 100 feet by 40 feet in length blocking one of the city’s main roads, Boundary Avenue. The spill was surrounded and held in place by snow berms. As of the evening of Feb. 19, the City of Aniak said on social media that it had not heard back from the owner of the property where the spill originated, so it couldn’t determine the total size of the spill or whether more fuel could spill in the coming days.
Kameroff said that as of Feb. 20 there wasn’t a concern that the fuel could leak into the Kuskokwim River, but that the main concern was keeping the fuel away from Aniak’s airport runway, which runs parallel to the site of the spill on Boundary Avenue.
Kameroff said that the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation was immediately notified following the spill, and said that the situation was under control. She also said that time was of the essence.
“We're trying to get it done as soon as we can because the weather isn't helping too much with the additional snow we got last night,” Kameroff said.
Kameroff said that the city will need to wait until warmer spring temperatures to deal with the contaminated snow and ice being removed from the site.
