It’s been more than two years to clean up the oil runoff into Spa Creek from the AACPS property at Bates Middle School. The following update was given to Spa Creek Conservancy (SCC) by Susan Bull, the Supervisor in the Remediation Division at the MD Department of the Environment, who was tasked with working with the County Schools to address the continuing oil spill from Bates Middle.
The oil was coming from a leaking oil tank in the school and from a break in one of the pipes coming out of the school. Who knows how long this was going on but some work has been done to address the problem.
The collection booms by the Creek are still in place, as mid-December 2020, and the County Schools are required to check them periodically (it was originally weekly) to determine what is still spilling into Spa Creek. The oily smell that was readily apparent now seems minimal.
SCC asks that all Creek residents periodically check out the booms and the smell and let SCC know if they see an issue there. The City of Annapolis is not responsible for the cleanup but Matt Waters has been checking in with MDE to get updates. SCC would then report any problems to AACPS and to MDE.
Simon Brown and Tom Peterson have been keeping up with this and have spoken with some of the folks responsible, so we know that there are eyes on this spot. Below is the MDE link with all documents and actions taken so far. https://bit.ly/38pePVV