VIDEO: Cleanup continues after ‘gallons and gallons’ of oil spilled on Tuscarawas River - WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland

Oil spill on Ohio's Tuscarawas River: Cleanup continues

BARBERTON, Ohio (WJW) — It’s been nearly a week since an out-of-state oil recycler spilled a still-undetermined amount of motor oil into the Tuscarawas River in Barberton, turning the water black and killing wildlife.

A state-led cleanup continues, in which the spilled oil now traveling down the river is being contained by booms, covered in absorbent pads or being vacuumed by industrial suction trucks, according to officials.

Meanwhile, the company responsible for the spill, North Carolina-based Noble Oil Services, will be billed for the cleanup, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

How it happened

The late Wednesday, July 5, spill was first reported to the EPA the following Thursday, then traced to a warehousing and logistics company along Snyder Avenue. There, Noble Oil Services was transferring oil from a tanker truck to a railcar when the oil spilled into a storm sewer that drained into the Tuscarawas River, according to a statement from the EPA.

“Currently, the focus is on the cleanup,” said EPA spokesperson Dina Pierce. “Notices of violation and any other enforcement actions are generally determined at a later date.”

Barberton Mayor Bill Judge told FOX 8 News the spill happened just south of Snyder Avenue — which is near Wolf Creek and the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail— and started traveling south along the river.

Cleanup crews have floated several booms to contain the oil’s spread at the site of the spill, at the intersection of Van Buren and Vanderhoof roads and at Center Road. The last time Judge checked, the oil had not yet reached the Center Road boom, he said Tuesday.

Judge told FOX 8 News that the city’s drinking water supply, which is upstream from where the spill occurred, would not be affected — despite false claims that circulated on social media.

“We will not play on the fears generated by rumors, inaccurate information or misinformation,” Judge said in a video posted Monday to the city’s Facebook page.

FOX 8 News reached out to Noble Oil Services, which had a representative working at the spill site on Tuesday and Wednesday. The company is expected to release more information on Wednesday.

Noble Oil Services has also hired additional contactors who are now working on containing and removing oil from the river, according to the EPA.

“I know there are a lot of residents who want to help and clean up and be a part of it,” Judge said Tuesday. “We just don’t want to get in the way of the professionals who get paid to do this.”

‘Gallons and gallons of oil’

The EPA has yet to determine just how much oil was spilled. Kenmore resident James Carnahan, a former 15-year Summit Metro Parks worker, said he found the water at his usual fishing spot on Thursday morning was slick and shiny from “gallons and gallons of oil.”

At the time, residents knew little to nothing about the extent of the spill or what was being done, he said. So he started documenting it and posting photos and video to social media, including pictures of the dead waterfowl along the shore and videos of his hand reaching beneath the river’s inky surface and coming out covered in oil.

On Tuesday, Carnahan said he saw ODNR crews removing carcasses from the shore, which is important to keep scavenging animals from becoming sickened by feeding on them, he said.

“My hope is they have a crew every single day that goes down that river and starts collecting animals,” he said.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife has rescued several geese and one mallard from the river, according to a Tuesday statement from the department. Many of those waterfowl are now being rehabilitated at a Bay Village facility.

“We will continue to monitor wildlife in the area,” reads the statement.

‘We’ve never had a spill this large before’

Lake Erie Nature & Science Center in Bay Village, which specializes in waterfowl rehabilitation, is one of the facilities that took on some of the dozens of geese rescued from the river.

“We’ve never had a spill this large before,” Tim Jasinski, the center’s wildlife rehabilitation specialist, told FOX 8 News. There were so many birds in need — each taking about 30 minutes to clean — that the center reached out to another agency for help.

When first brought in, the ducks needed to drink fluids to stabilize them and help their bodies push out the oil coating their stomachs, which they ingested by trying to clean the oil from their feathers with their bills, Jasinski said.

They’re now cleaned and under heating lamps, as seen in a Tuesday post on the center’s Facebook page.

The geese are expected to spend some time recovering and rebuilding their natural protections, Jasinski said. Washing waterfowl also removes the natural oils that keep their feathers waterproof and keep them from sinking on water, he said.

Eventually, the center will work with the state wildlife division to find a suitable spot to release the geese, he said.

“They look great, compared to what they did. It’s night and day,” Jasinski said.