By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

A diesel fuel spill near the Iliamna River, which flows into Lake Iliamna in the Bristol Bay watershed, has seeped into bedrock and continues to pollute the river, despite removal of contaminated soil, state officials said July 2.

Gary Folley, the on-scene coordinator for the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, said the spill would continue to require long-term monitoring.

Meanwhile, absorbent pads are being used to recover the diesel fuel, which continues to spread a thin sheen on the river, he said.

The spill occurred June 6, when landing gear under a 9,500-gallon tanker trailer fuel tank, owned by the Iliamna Development Corp., collapsed after it was unhitched by a towing vehicle, according to DEC reports.

When the landing gear collapsed, the front holding tank of the trailer was punctured, creating a hairline crack along a weld and a hole about the size of a quarter in the tank, the DEC report said.

According to Folley, there was not a lot of time lost between the spill and when excavation began for several hundred cubic yards of the contaminated soil. IDC is now looking for a place to land farm the contaminated soil, a process that could take several years to rid the soil of pollutants.

Still, under that now removed soil was bedrock, and the diesel oil has leaked into the fractures in the bedrock, and from the bedrock into the Iliamna River, he said.

Folley said the continuous use of absorbent pads on the river was the only practical path that could be pursued at this point.

"We've done what we could to excavate the contaminated soil," he said. "There is no practical method except to blast the rock out. It is a pretty destructive process."

Pinpointing where the diesel plume is in the bedrock would involve a lot of blasting, or trying to wash it out, the latter being a process that could also move the diesel into the river, he said.

Folley said officials with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game don't seem concerned that the sheen poses an environmental threat at this point.

For now, long-term state monitoring will continue, and Iliamna Development is paying for the clean up, as well as state time devoted to that effort.

Once the investigation is completed, there will be a determination if penalties against Iliamna Development Corp. will be filed, Folley said.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at

margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.