
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993                   TAG: 9303310200
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HERNDON                                LENGTH: Medium

NORTHERN VIRGINIA WATER SAFE AS CLEANUP OF SPILL CONTINUES

Water supplies were reported safe Tuesday as workers struggled to remove tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel from the mouth of a stream running into the Potomac River.

"Naturally, we'd like things to be moving even faster," said Al Peterson, spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency. "But given the size of the spill and the [weather] conditions, I'd have to say things are moving pretty according to schedule."

The spill occurred Sunday when a 36-inch Colonial Pipeline Co. line ruptured. About 336,000 gallons of oil spewed from the underground pipe with about 100,000 gallons making its way to the creek, officials said.

A Coast Guard boat equipped with a skimmer worked on the Potomac at the mouth of Sugarland Run in western Fairfax County, where Peterson said about 50,000 gallons of fuel was caught by containment booms.

The boat was brought in late Monday from New Jersey, after officials determined that high water levels were causing some of the oil to get past the booms.

The creek's swampy mouth is inaccessible by vehicle. Crews constructed a 3,000-foot temporary pipeline and dropped a portable pump into the stream by helicopter to help remove the diesel fuel. The fuel and contaminated water were then hauled away by truck.

Officials in Fairfax and Loudoun counties and representatives from the Maryland Department of Environment said area water supplies were in good shape Tuesday.

Fairfax, which closed one of the county's two main river-water intakes Sunday night, had asked customers to reduce use. However, county water authority spokesman James Warfield said normal pressure levels were restored by Monday evening.

Loudoun County supplies were not affected, because that intake is upriver from the spill. Judy Dotson, spokesman for the county fire department, said Tuesday no oil had been detected in residential wells.

Maryland environmental spokesman John Chlada said the situation could change if the wind continued to blow the oil toward the Maryland shoreline.

The oil sheen extended as far south as Fort Washington, Md., in Prince George's County, and could extend as far as Charles County, Chlada said.

Fourteen animals, including beavers, muskrat and geese, had been killed as a result of the spill, along with an undetermined number of fish, officials said.

by CNB