DUCHESNE — At least eight fish have been found dead in an oil-contaminated stretch of the Strawberry River.
The fish were discovered Sunday in a small pool created by decreased river flows meant to prevent the spread of black wax crude oil that was dumped into the river Friday, said Ivan Ayres, emergency response director for Enviro Care Inc.
It's unclear whether the fish died because they were trapped in the pool when the water level dropped, Ayres said, or because of exposure to the oil.
"It's a gray area as far as the root cause," he said Sunday during a meeting held to update community members on efforts to clean up four miles of the Strawberry and Duchesne rivers that have been contaminated.
At least one of the fish has been turned over to the Duchesne County Sheriff's Office, which is conducting a criminal probe into Friday's dumping incident.
Sheriff Travis Mitchell said Sunday that investigators have some leads in the case and have been promised full cooperation from oil and gas companies operating in the area.
"I think we have a good chance of figuring out where (the oil) came from," Mitchell said.
The wife of a Chevron employee walking along a path that borders the Strawberry River just south of the Duchesne County Fairgrounds spotted the oil in the river sometime before 10:30 a.m. Friday. She notified her husband of her discovery when he came home about 1 p.m., and he notified authorities and his employer.
Chevron, although not linked to the dumping incident, played an integral role in early efforts to keep the oil from spreading downriver. The company provided more than 600 feet of booms and buoys Friday to help first responders from the Duchesne and Myton fire departments and Ute Indian Tribe with containment.
Scott Hacking, a district engineer with the state Department of Environmental Quality, said an estimated 15 to 20 barrels of crude oil were dumped into the river. He said one scenario being considered is that an oil-field water truck driver mixed river water with the contents of the truck's tank — mistakenly believing it "wasn't that dirty" — and then discharged the load into the river.
"That's illegal too," Hacking said. "The other scenario is that it was intentional."
Hacking took samples at the site Friday to test water quality and determine exactly what the substance is. However, determining exactly which well the oil came from could prove costly and difficult.
"We may not be able to isolate it to a particular company or a particular well," Hacking said.
Duchesne County Commission Chairman Kent Peatross said Sunday that, in his opinion, it's "pretty evident" that whoever dumped the oil in the river intended to do so.
"We're hoping the county and (Duchesne) city aren't going to pay the bill on this," said Peatross, who has been told the cleanup costs could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"We've talked to the (energy) companies, and they're appalled like the rest of us," he said. "They want to see someone's hide on the wall. They don't approve of this at all."
Enviro Care crews have been in Duchesne since late Friday night working to clean up the rivers and track the spread of the oil. Black trash bags full of football-size clumps of foul-smelling petroleum could be seen Saturday on both banks of the Strawberry River near the fairgrounds.
Lee Meacham, who lives on the Strawberry River, complained Sunday that Ayres and his crews are not working fast enough to remove large, congealed chunks of oil from the river. He said the lower water levels in the rivers have allowed the oil to warm up to a liquid state, allowing it to spread farther downstream.
"Get that oil out of the creek," Meacham demanded. "The sooner you do it, the better."
Ayres said crews are working from both ends of the contaminated zone on the Strawberry and Duchesne rivers as fast as they can. He said more resources are available, if it's determined that they are needed, but warned that the remediation effort will be a long process.
"This is literally picking up every rock and cleaning it off," he said.
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