Oil spill affects Holmes Run
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| Ranck |
Updated, 5:35 p.m.: An oil spill on the Inova property on the 3200 block of Gallows Road on March 21 has contaminated Holmes Run.
The Fairfax County Fire Department found approximately 3,700 gallons of diesel fuel had spilled out of some tanks, Battalion Chief Marty Ranck, with the department’s Hazardous Materials Response Team, reported in a video on Twitter. A warning notice was also sent to Raymondale residents.
“The leak has been isolated and contained to the property. However, small amounts did leave the property in some stormwater drains and small creeks heading to the Holmes Run and Lake Barcroft area,” Ranck says.
“At this point there is no immediate hazard to residents at this time,” he says, but urges prople to contact the non-emergency number, 703-691-2131, if they see a sheen on the water within the next day or two.
The Fire Department is coordinating the cleanup and remediation with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and an onsite cleanup contractor.
The fuel spill was from tanks on the Inova site, not from the ongoing construction project, says Randy Chapman, petroleum program manager with the Northern Region of the DEQ.
The diesel fuel leaked from one of the three underground tanks serving the existing buildings that had been used for Mobil Exxon’s headquarters, Chapman said. The tanks feed the emergency generators that serve as backup for the building’s heating system.
Inova purchased the property in 2015 and is in the process of converting the buildings to the Inova Center for Personalized Health, so the tanks are still in use.
The tanks have been shut down as the oil spill is being investigated, Chapman says. Booms and absorbent pads are in place to contain the fuel and prevent more oil from “migrating off the property.”
The 3,700 gallons is the amount of oil that had leaked out and been trapped underground, Chapman said. “A small percentage of that got out,” as the rain pushed some of it to the surface and it flowed across the ground into a drainage ditch. “We’re not downplaying the impact,” he said, but only “a minor amount got into the creek.”
Investigators are working to determine where in the underground piping system the leak occurred, the extent of the fuel loss, and how far it’s gone.
All large buildings have similar systems for running emergency generators, Chapman said, and they’re particularly critical for medical facilities. In the current situation, the leak was discovered during a regular testing procedure, when a discrepancy in the volume of oil in the tank was found compared to the previous test.
Freaking great.