Skagit County





PRESS RELEASE

December 18, 2023




*Contact*

Jenn Rogers, Communications Manager

[email protected] <[email protected]>

360-416-1309






FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Update #8 on Olympic Pipeline Gasoline Spill

?

Please see the most recent statement below from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington State Department of Ecology, and bp America regarding the Olympic pipeline gasoline spill on Highway 534 in Conway. Skagit County Department of Emergency Management is on site to support the response efforts.

Conway, WA (December 18, 2023/5:00 PM)

Note: Because changes in recent updates on environmental and operational activities on site have become more incremental, updates will no longer be released daily. Updates will be generated when warranted by response activities.

The unified command leading the response to the release of gasoline from a vault associated with the Olympic Pipeline in Conway, Washington has the following updates on the progress of cleanup efforts:

? Teams have evaluated 7,170 meters (4.4 miles) of shoreline for potential spill impacts, and trace impacts from the spill have been found on 504 meters (1/3 of a mile) of shoreline.

? Approximately 2,300 feet of boom are currently deployed in the response.

? Approximately 7,000 gallons of gasoline have been recovered to date. This number will be updated when the oily/water mixture being collected has sufficient time to settle and be measured. Approximately 25,000 gallons were released in the incident.

? Landowners identified as having a well along Hill Ditch are being asked if they want to have their wells tested. At this time nine such wells have been identified.

Members of the public who come upon injured or deceased wildlife are asked not to touch or relocate affected wildlife and to call 1-800-22BIRDS.

Area residents who live along Hill Ditch may continue to see sheen as pockets of gasoline that were trapped by vegetation and other debris on the water and along the shoreline are released by wind, rain, and the natural rise and fall of stream levels. Spill response teams are locating and removing these pockets of gasoline.

General Information

The unified command consists of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the
Washington Department of Ecology, Skagit County Department of Emergency Management, bp,

Lummi Nation, and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

A claims center has been established by the Olympic Pipeline. Please call 1-866-616-1558 to report any personal or property damages resulting from the spill.

One lane of SR 534 remains open as cleanup work proceeds. Traffic flaggers are assisting motorists through the area.

Air monitoring conducted at the direction of unified command continues to indicate no public health risk from gasoline fumes.

Status updates will be posted on Ecology?s incident webpage at [link removed]

The Federal Aviation Administration established a temporary flight restriction in the response area. More information is available at [link removed]

For further information on this incident, contact:
Scarlet Tang/Ecology: 206-920-2600
Bill Dunbar/EPA: 206-245-7452
Jenn Rogers/Skagit County: 360-630-6604
Tom Wolf/BP: 360-483-7438

?

?

###








Skagit County [ [link removed] ]

SKAGIT COUNTY, WASHINGTON

County Commissioners: Lisa Janicki, Peter Browning, Ron Wesen
1800 Continental Place, Suite 100
Mount Vernon, WA 98273

[email protected]

facebook [ [link removed] ]twitter [ [link removed] ]website [ [link removed] ]

Manage Account

Subscriber Preferences [ [link removed] ] ?|? Unsubscribe [ [link removed] ] ?|? Help [ [link removed] ]



________________________________________________________________________

This email was sent to [email protected] using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: Skagit County, Washington ?1800 Continental Place, Suite 100 ?Mount Vernon, WA 98273 GovDelivery logo [ [link removed] ]