SUNNYSIDE, Wash. (AP) — Environmental officials say spilled oil has covered 50 birds after as much as 1,500 gallons of used motor oil leaked into irrigation canals and a river in an agricultural area of south-central Washington.
Ecology Department spokeswoman Joye Redfield-Wilder says a subcontractor was hired Tuesday to try to save the birds.
She says the spill was discovered Sunday in Sunnyside, about 140 miles southeast of Seattle. A contractor's workers have been using absorbent pads, protective booms and vacuum pumps to clean up the oil. The work could take weeks.
Redfield-Wilder says the oil was stored in a tank at a former feedlot and could have been there for years. The leak flowed through about 7 miles of irrigation ditches and canals and about 12 miles down the Yakima River.
The Department of Ecology released the following statement: