Residents of the Chilkat Valley grappled with heavy snow over the last few weeks, and now a handful are contending with home heating oil spills that could be costly to clean up.
At least four people reported spills to the state ranging from 10-150 gallons, all caused by snow according to state Department of Environmental Conservation data.
The department urged people to inspect their home heating oil tanks for leaks or damage to fuel lines in a recent social media post, noting that leaks and damaged fuel lines could be caused by snow and ice sliding off of roofs or the added weight of rain-soaked snow.
It’s something Leslie Evenden said she hadn’t considered until nearly 80 gallons of fuel was released from a tank at a rental home she owns on Allen Road.
“I had a fuel line that wasn’t really exposed to a shedding roof but somehow, in that snowpocalypse, there was a lot of snow on the ground, a lot of snow everywhere. Anything could have happened to it,” she said. “I wasn’t keeping it clear. That one’s on me. I did shovel the roof, but I didn’t even think of the tank.”
Evenden, who is in the process of selling the home, is now contending with a problem that has already cost her about $5,000 to clean up and she anticipates will cost several thousand more before it will be done.
The costs add up, in part, because the state requires that an environmental company help design a work plan to do the cleanup.
“I’m not an expert, so I can’t do that myself,” Evenden said. “I have to hire a professional who is going to charge whatever they decide to design this work plan. You’re a little bit at someone else’s mercy.”
Once that cleanup is complete, disposal of the contaminated soil and ice is another big cost.
That’s a cost Taylor Ashton is contending with as well.
Ashton, who owns a mobile home in St. James Place, said a heavy snow load fell off of the roof and cracked the seal where the fuel line meets the tank outside of the home. That caused a slow leak that released an estimated 10 gallons of fuel.
Ashton, who is renting the home to someone else, said she’s not surprised that a snow load could cause that kind of damage but wishes that she’d have thought to put a roof or cover over the tank. For now, she’s turned the damaged tank over onto its side.
“Luckily our tenants have another source of heat until we get that figured out,” she said.
Debra Schnabel, who owns the land Ashton’s rental home is sitting on, had to contend with a similar situation in St. James Place in 2014 when snow caused a 100-gallon heating fuel leak at a mobile home she was renting to someone.
That kicked off a four-year process of cleanup that, to this day, is not fully completed because the fuel leaked under the home and the cleanup company wasn’t able to remove all of the contaminated soil without damaging the home’s foundation. Eventually the site was put on the state’s contaminated sites database.
“It haunted me forever,” Schnabel said. And, while Evenden said her experience with state employees has, so far, been helpful, Schnabel said she walked away from the experience feeling as though state spill response employees were penalizing her.
And, she had to pay them for their time – something state spill response staff are required by law to do, but have tried to get lawmakers to change in the past.
Now, some of those costs could be covered. In early January, the Department of Environmental Conservation launched a new program to help some homeowners cover the cleanup costs of home heating oil spills. The program is funded through a $450,000 capital budget appropriation from the state legislature.
Evenden said she has applied for a grant through the program which, according to its guidelines, could cover up to $17,000 in costs for transportation and disposal of contaminated soil, and the purchase of personal protective equipment, absorbent material and other cleanup supplies.
She and Schnabel both said they’d also like to see the borough take steps to address home heating oil spills. In 2018, while Schnabel was borough manager, she suggested changing borough code to regulate the placement of fuel tanks near homes. That drew opposition from some assembly members who did not want to create new building codes.
Both women said an education campaign could be helpful for homeowners and renters too. “You know, I could have had a cover over my tank. I could have had a containment area under my tank. There’s lots of things I could have had,” Evenden said. “It’s my fault because I own it, but it’s not necessarily my fault because I wasn’t aware of it or I wasn’t prepared for it.”
She also suggested that the borough put some money toward helping people cover the costs of purchasing double-walled heating oil tanks that can help protect against spills but are significantly more expensive than single-walled tanks.