CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - More than 3,000 gallons of fuel leaked from a generator at a wastewater treatment plant on James Island Saturday, with some of it getting into the surrounding marsh, a water system spokesman said.
Wastewater workers noticed the leak early in the morning and called in contractors to help clean up the spill, Charleston Water System spokesman Mike Saia told The Post and Courier newspaper.
More than 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel have been documented as missing from the backup generator where the pump control failed at the Plum Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, but they aren’t sure how much of it got into the water, Saia said.
Andrew Wunderley of Charleston Waterkeeper said that floodwater and high tides could quickly wash any fuel that remained on land into the marshes. That could affect the wildlife in the marshes.
“It’s hard to know exactly what’s going to happen because it’s so dynamic,” Wunderley said. “The marsh in that area doesn’t look healthy; it’s bare, brown, kind of thin … but hopefully it’ll be quick. Hopefully the cleanup is thorough.”
Water system employees notified the federal Environmental Protection Agency. State Department of Health and Environmental Control spokeswoman Laura Renwick said that agency and the Coast Guard will monitor the cleanup process.
Operations at the system’s main wastewater treatment plant haven’t been affected by the spill, Saia said.
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