WALTHAM, MA — The state Department of Environmental Protection's emergency response unit was called last week to the Fernald property for a report of a fuel spill. When they arrived they found it appeared vandals had somehow damaged a 12,000 gallon tank, releasing the fuel across the parking lot and into the soil.

MassDEP officials said the fuel oil spill appears to have happened a few weeks back but wasn't found until an asbestos abatement company showed up Thursday to do some work on one of the buildings. But, a week later and few at City Hall seemed to know the details of the spill. "I want to believe there is no public health threat at the moment because of this. I'm sure once we became aware of it, we contained it. But there's a lot of unanswered questions," said Councilor Diane LeBlanc who only heard rumors of the spill and said she was expecting to hear the official word at the final city council meeting before the summer break.

There was no mention of it. "Where was the public notification. Where was the simple statement saying what happened?" she said.



According to the MassDEP report, Waltham Deputy Chief Brock Roland let MassDEP know Thursday as required within two hours of the discovery of the diesel fuel spill at the abandoned power facility off of Pine Street. The spill impacted an electrical utility conduit and vault area along with the facility, he told them. " When we go into something like that we usually try to contain the spill and then do any type of assistance we can with speedy dry," said Lt. Scott Perry spokesperson for the Waltham Fire Department. "If the spill is anything above 5 or 10 gallons we notify the DEP."

In this case, he said the department notified the building department and the wires department.

MassDEP sent their emergency responder Kenneth Sanderson to help provide technical support. According to the report someone authorized LSP Parker to apply, sweep, and remove the fuel drum, and then manage, transport and dispose of fuel-soaked absorbents as needed. The contractor was also given permission to remove up to 100 cubic yards of contaminated soil to help clean up the mess.

"When you have something like this happen you can't just throw the soil or cleanup materials into the landfill," said Perry adding those have to be disposed in a way that is DEP approved. It's not clear just how much #2 fuel oil, a distillate home heating oil similar to diesel fuel, was in the 12,000 gallon tank when it spilled, according to MassDEP and the Fire Department, which indicated it was investigating in the report. But the report indicates it appears at least 100 gallons were spilled.