This incident is resolved. These are old records describing the event.
Incident Summary
On December 10, 2011 approximately 1,650 gallons of diesel fuel used to power an emergency generator spilled into the basement of Stanley Hall located on the eastern edge of the Central Campus Park. While much of the fuel was contained in building and cleaned up, a portion of the spill entered a storm drain leading to Strawberry Creek by the Wickson Bridge. The fuel was then transported by the creek through the City of Berkeley to the outfall in the San Francisco Bay. Cleanup efforts have been underway since December 10 with oversight by federal, state and local authorities including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, and State of California Department of Fish and Game. Since the intial spill, much work has been performed, and conditions have improved markedly. On January 31, 2012 overseeing agencies formally concluded the spill response clean-up.
Documents
March 6, 2012 - UC Berkeley Stanley Hall Diesel Spill - Natural Resource Damage Assessment December 2011 Water and Sediment Sampling Summary Cardno Entrix
Current and Future Activities
Tuesday January 31, 2012
Spill reponse coordinating agencies and entities completed observations of all open creek channels this morning from the campus to the SF Bay. No significant odor or sheen was found at any of the observed locations, including, Central Campus, Strawberry Creek Park, Allston Street, and at the Brickyard Cove outfall area.
Based on today’s observations, the Sign-Off Field Team (SOFT) determined that each segment of Strawberry Creek had met the Unified Command’s emergency response objectives and clean-up endpoint criteria. Based on the recommendation from the SOFT, Unified Command representatives (Federal and State on-scene coordinators and Responsible Party) executed a Sign-Off/Termination of Emergency Response.
All remaining booms and absorbent materials and signs are scheduled to be removed tomorrow, Wednesday February 1, 2012. . Environmental staff will continue to monitor creek recovery for the foreseeable future.
Thursday January 27, 2012 Update
Observations this week of Strawberry Creek from the campus to the SF Bay outfall at Brickyard Cove found no significant odors or sheens following the substantial rainfall of the previous weekend. Final inspections are scheduled for early next week (week of January 30), when it is anticipated that the coordinating agnecies and entities involved in the cleanup effort will terminate spill response. The creek will continue to be monitored until agency sign-off on cleanup completion.
Friday January 20, 2012 Update
Last week the coordinating agnecies and entities involved in the cleanup effort determined that active cleanup is no longer required. Therefore, active diesel fuel clean up has concluded and the spill response has moved to a monitoring and maintenance phase. Reports this week indicate that conditions are steadily improving at all observed locations.
The first sigificant rainfall since the December 10 spill began Thursday evening January 19, and as of 4:00 PM today, Friday January 20, 2012, the campus weather station on the Banway Building (weather.berkeley.edu)* has recorded a total of 0.4 inches of rain accumulation with the storm. Inspections of the creek this morning and afternoon have found some additional weathered diesel product at the Allston culvert outfall and at Strawberry Creek Park and a slight increase in odor at these areas.The creek will be monitored during the rainy weekend period and oil absorbent booms will be maintained as necessary.
For more information, see the January 13, 2012 Update on Strawberry Creek Fuel Cleanup flyer distrubuted to Berkeley residents in the Strawberry Creek Park vicinity today and the latest NewsCenter update.
UC Berkeley News Center Stanley Diesel Spill Archive
* Note: weather.berkeley.edu is no longer maintained.