Corps says 1,300 gallons of dam oil reached river

Matt Rabe, public affairs specialist for the Corps of Engineers, said the initial estimate of the amount of oil that has been recovered from the water is between 100-200 gallons.

"That is a preliminary number," Rabe stressed.

"It's in the mop-up stage now," said Joye Redfield-Wilder, public information officer with the Washington Department of Ecology in Yakima. "The emergency response is over. On the river itself, about 200 gallons total have been recovered. The rest is non-recoverable sheen. It's expected to bio-degrade within weeks or days. If it warms up, it would evaporate more quickly."

The oil came from outdoor electrical transformers at The Dalles Dam, which suffered broken pipes in the recent freezing weather conditions. The transformer contained mineral oil that was contaminated with "low levels" of PCBs.

Redfield-Wilder said much of the oil washed into the Bingen Marina.

"The contractor is looking to get a substantial bit of oil at the Bingen Marina," she said. "The way the weather was and the currents were, it pushed the oil in there. It was trapped under a substantial amount of ice and contained there."

There appeared to be no immediate harmful impacts to animals.

"My understanding is, so far we haven't seen any fish or wildlife damage," Redfield-Wilder explained.

In the aftermath of the spill, Greg deBruler of the Gorge-based environmental watchdog group Columbia Riverkeeper (CRK) said the main impetus of CRK is to work on spill prevention. The group is drafting a letter to members of the area's congressional delegation on both sides of the river.

"We want to make sure this never happens again," deBruler explained. "We want to sit down with the Corps and look at lessons learned and where do we go from here."

DeBruler said there were two primary issues that needed to be addressed.

"First, why was there a delay in getting the booms in the water?" deBruler asked. "And why could the Corps not determine immediately that hundreds of gallons had gone into the river? It's not like we're blaming the Corps; it was an accident. But they should stand up and say, `we have a major spill here,' and yes, the public should be notified."

Rabe pointed out that an outside review team would come to The Dalles Dam soon to analyze operations to help ensure that no further spills occur.

"They will provide a two-day review of our processes and help us figure out what went wrong and how to minimize the possibility of this happening in the future, and how to respond more effectively," Rabe said. "We're looking forward to getting this review under way, then we'll do what we can to minimize the chance of any future occurrence."

Rabe said there was no certain date for when the cleanup of the Jan. 15 spill would be completed.

"We will keep working until the states of Oregon and Washington tell us we've done all we can. They have the final say on when we can be done," Rabe explained.