Attempted fuel theft causes spill into creek; Cleanup underway

SEATTLE — Crews are working to get a gas spill cleaned up at Longfellow Creek, which flows through the West Seattle Golf Course.

The sight was disturbing to see as a KIRO 7 photographer captured a green creek, which is from the dye workers used to try and identify how much gas may have spilled.

“When we respond to something like this, it’s pretty devastating for us because we don’t like to see this,” said Eric Autry with Seattle Public Utilities.

Autry said it appears a thief was trying to steal gas from a 300-gallon container on the grounds of the city-owned golf course.

It was discovered at about 6 a.m. Friday but officials weren’t alerted until later in the afternoon.

Autry said 70-gallons of gas were left behind and it is unknown how much fuel spilled into the soil, which is now covered with a white tarp, or how much made it into the water.

“It’s not like when we have a spill at a gas station, where somebody’s like, hey, this is how much spilled. These are people coming in the night, doing something illegal, and that part of the equation that we’d usually use for an investigation, doesn’t exist,” Autry said.

KIRO 7 found out the gas from the container spilled down the embankment, went down into a storm drain and emptied into the creek.

Officials with the Washington State Department of Ecology are monitoring the environmental impacts.

KIRO 7 was told that fish have died. Our crew also saw ducks in the water, not far from the containment booms used to soak up the fuel.

“It being mixable in water and mixing, makes our response very difficult. Heavier oils float on the water a lot better and are more recoverable, gas isn’t,” Autry said.

Crews are expected to be out at the site of the spill through the weekend.

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