LINNEUS, Maine — The Department of Environmental Protection is continuing efforts to clean a small oil spill at a home on Drews Lake.
According to Paul Blood, geologist for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the DEP was called to the South Shore residence of Steve Fitzpatrick back on Oct. 27, when the homeowner discovered his outdoor oil tank was empty.
“There was not a huge amount of oil going everywhere,” Blood said. “The only way the homeowner knew something was wrong was because he received a delivery of oil, but a short time later there was no oil in the tank.”
Blood said there was a slight odor of fuel oil outside the home, which sits about 30 feet above the lake. Blood said DEP officials have been monitoring the lake and underground well associated with the home since November and to date, no oil has materialized in the water of Drews Lake.
“So far we have seen no surface expression of oil in the water,” Blood said. “When that didn’t happen, we decided to drill to see if we could find any oil.”
A small amount of oil was located in the soil samples from the test drill hole, which went 30 feet into the ground. Digging was not an option, Blood said, because there is a large amount of bedrock and large boulders placed along the ground surrounding the home.
“In the next couple of weeks we will be installing recovery pumps in the hopes of preventing any oil from ever coming out anywhere,” he said. “There has been no environmental impact to date. We have been sampling the well water to the home. There aren’t any other wells close by that would be at risk. So far, everything has been OK.”
Blood added that DEP officials will continue to monitor the site and will do more extensive testing in the spring to ensure there is no contamination.
