UPDATE: As of Friday, officials now estimate the spill involved 5,000 gallons of oil. Previous estimates placed the oil spill at 2,000 gallons. The story has been updated.
After 5,000 gallons of diesel oil that had been dyed the color of red wine leaked into Baltimore’s harbor Wednesday, crews on Thursday continued to clean up the spill and rescue affected wildlife.
The oil spill is contained to the marina at the South Central Avenue Bridge in Harbor East, near Living Classrooms Foundation’s Crossroads School.
As crews continue to address the spill, Central Avenue will remain closed between Lancaster and Point streets, including for drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and any other users.
After working through the night, crews will pause operations Thursday night in order to evaluate progress and allow responders and contractors to rest, Mayor Brandon Scott said during a press conference Thursday afternoon.
“We need the workers to be restful, and we have to be mindful that they’ve also been working in the heat today,” Scott said.
The source of the spill Wednesday was a Johns Hopkins Hospital pipeline at 1780 E. Fayette St., about 1.3 miles from the site of the leak, according to a statement from the U.S. Coast Guard.
Scott said the cause of the spill will be investigated, but currently officials are focused on cleanup.
“Right now, we are focused on this effort to clean up, the prevention of it being expanded,” he said. “There will be a time where we move into the investigation period. We’re not at that point yet. We will definitely get to the bottom of it, but right now we’re focused on making sure this does not go further out into the harbor.”
The Oil Control Program, under MDE’s Land & Materials Administration, will oversee the investigation, said Maryland Secretary of the Environment Serena McIlwain.
Any potential fines will be assessed as part of that investigation, said Geoffrey Donahue, director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness & Response within the Maryland Department of the Environment.
“There’ll be a determination at that point, if there’s anything that would warrant a fine for that,” he said. “But there obviously is a cost to the response, which as the responsible party they’re addressing”
Officials from Baltimore City, the state of Maryland, and the U.S. Coast Guard “are moving in lockstep to act with focus and urgency to ensure a swift response,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement.
“This is a complicated operation,” Moore said. “We have made enormous progress in a very short amount of time. But I want to reiterate my message from this morning: We still have more work to do. We ask that all Marylanders use alternate routes away from Harbor East. Avoiding the area will help ensure our emergency personnel can do their jobs efficiently and effectively.”
The spill poses no danger to air quality, but residents should still avoid the area, McIlwain said.
“There’s not an air quality issue; there’s an odor issue,” McIlwain said “And so that’s why we really recommend that no one really comes down here and just hang out, because there is a strong smell, and depending on your health, that could be an issue.”
She added that MDE is collecting air samples and is working with Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland to mobilize air monitors.
Crews have been using vacuums and absorbent materials to remove oil from the water. They have also been using booms to contain the spill area and prevent oil from spreading to other parts of the harbor.
After large swaths of red-dyed oil covered much of the area, the spill has been diminished to streaks and patches of crimson as of Thursday afternoon.
So far, crews have collected 18,000 gallons of oil-water mixture, and roughly 400 gallons have been captured by sorbents, according to Donahue.
As the water and fuel stratify within the collection tanks, crews will be able to determine how much of the oil they have recovered.
“The challenge that we have is we don’t know what’s underground,” said Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace.
For that reason, Wallace said it’s difficult to estimate when the spill may be fully cleaned up.
“I can’t put a timeline on it, because we could go a week, two weeks, without significant rain, and then three weeks from now get two or three inches of rain in an hour, as we know Baltimore has been prone to do recently, and we could start to see product again,” Wallace said.
Adding urgency to the cleanup efforts are thunderstorms forecast for the Baltimore region this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Heavy rainfall could cause oil to be washed over the harbor wall.
“We know we’ve had a discharge product where we stand right now,” Wallace said. “We cannot guarantee that we will not have further discharge product if a heavy storm comes through. So we’re proactively placing containment booms in the Fells Point area in the event that there’s discharge over there, we’re able to capture that real quick.”
Agencies have been evaluating the health of wildlife in the area, including moving animals that have not been impacted by the spill into safe areas, and rescuing animals that have been affected, said Josh Kurtz, secretary of Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources.
Twenty-five birds and three turtles have been transported up to Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research of Newark, Delaware, which is providing treatment for animals impacted by the spill.
The rescued turtles – two sliders and a snapping turtle – were deemed to be in “very good health,” as are the other residents of the turtle island between Eden and Caroline streets, Kurtz said.
“The good thing about turtles is they actually can really sense changes in the environment, and they will move away from poor water quality,” Kurtz said. “They can also get underneath things like oil.”
He added, “The turtle population over there is already back on the island, and we do not have concerns for the turtle population.”
Officials at the National Aquarium said they have been in conversation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Maryland Department of the Environment, Baltimore City, Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research, Inc., and other partners to lend their support. Wildlife response coordination falls under the purview of Maryland DNR and Tri-State, while the U.S. Coast Guard is managing mitigation of the spill itself.
The National Aquarium “has not observed any direct consequences of the oil spill event on the Harbor Wetland habitat,” including for the otters and other animals that call it home, officials said.
“[O]ur field conservation team did observe fresh scat from the otters (and no evidence of oil contamination) this morning which means otters were in the habitat overnight as usual,” they said.
Aquarium officials added that all animals observed in and around the exhibit “appear healthy and seem to be behaving normally,” and team members will continue to monitor them to ensure they remain healthy.
There is currently no significant impact on the broader harbor as the spill has been contained to the area near Harbor East, according to Adam Lindquist, vice president of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore.
“As of now, the spill remains well contained around the marina and is not significantly affecting the larger harbor,” Lindquist told Baltimore Fishbowl.
But he added that his organization will be monitoring the situation to assess any potential impacts on water recreation events scheduled for later this month, including the Baltimore Floatilla on June 14 and the Harbor Splash on June 21.
The Waterfront Partnership is also in communication with organizations like the National Aquarium and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to monitor any impacts on the local ecosystem, Lindquist said.
