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

DATE: MONDAY, June 26, 1995                   TAG: 9506260172
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

OIL FOULS DUCK POND; FOWL UNRUFFLED

The oil came from a leak in the backup heating system at Tech's power plant, said Utilities Director Ray Powell. The plant is on Turner Street, one-half mile uphill from the pond.

Power plant workers discovered the leak early Sunday afternoon when they noticed fuel oil collecting in a sump area where it's not supposed to be, Powell said. They shut down the heating system, which normally must run continuously.

Meanwhile, Tech health and safety officials used booms to trap the oil in a feeder stream leading into the smaller section of the Duck Pond. They began absorbing the oil with pads and vacuuming it off the surface of the water, said Tech safety official Bernadette Mondy.

But runoff from a mid-afternoon downpour swept the oil into the upper pond and defeated the first effort at containment.

Crews next stopped the oil with a PowerSorb boom spread across the 15-foot spillway from the smaller section of the pond. By early evening, they'd consulted a state Department of Environmental Quality official and called in a private contractor to stabilize the situation overnight, Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said. The cleanup is to continue today.

The leak appeared to have caused no immediate environmental damage, Hincker said. In fact, a handful of people continued to fish in the lower pond late Sunday, apparently unaware of the situation. The pond's numerous namesakes seemed to be taking things in stride, their feathers unruffled by dusk.

Tech created the Duck Pond in the late 1920s by damming Stroubles Creek, a tributary of the New River. Though its shore and environs - just west of "The Grove" where President Paul Torgersen resides - are well-tended, the pond itself acts as a giant, silted drain for the university and downtown Blacksburg.

The pond also has been the site of past spills. In January 1994, Tech spent $20,000 to remove 200 gallons of petroleum-based industrial lubricant that leaked from a malfunctioning machine in Tech's Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department in Randolph Hall and made its way to the Duck Pond.