BALTIMORE — Just days after a fuel spill, the water no longer appears to be filled with red dyed diesel in the canal that leads to Harbor East.
"That's why this spill is a little extra devastating because it's impacting the one area of natural coastline that we have left," vice president of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore Adam Lindquist said.
The canal features what's affectionately known as "turtle island", a popular spot for turtles to hang out. As of Monday, they appeared to be doing ok.
What's next following the diesel fuel spill in Baltimore?
"It sounds like there's been relatively minor impacts to the environment, which is incredible given the amount of fuel that spilled into the harbor," Alice Volpitta, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper with Blue Water Baltimore, said.
Last week, 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the harbor after an overflow during a routine delivery by a "third-party vendor" for backup generators in a Johns Hopkins patient care building. The original estimate by the Maryland Department of the Environment was just a fraction of the final number at just 100 gallons, which was later increased to 2,000 and then 5,000.
"Diesel fuel is actually a very volatile petroleum product, so it evaporates. So these turtles basking, if they had diesel on their shell, it would literally evaporate," Lindquist explained.
The upcoming events scheduled to promote the harbor's ever-improving health are still on.
That includes this Saturday's Baltimore Floatilla and the second annual Harbor Splash taking place at the end of the month.
"I hope that we take all spills into the Baltimore Harbor as seriously as the city and state took this spill, because that was the kind of response that we needed," Lindquist said.
Now that the clean-up is nearing completion, MDE can focus on investigating the cause of the spill.
Johns Hopkins has footed the bill for the clean-up, though it's unclear just how much it's cost so far.
In an email response to WMAR-2 News, a spokesperson did not acknowledge questions of cost or who the third-party vendor involved is.
"At this point, with the recovery underway, the next step is really figuring out what happened so they can hold the correct people accountable and it doesn't happen again," Volpitta said.
If there are monetary penalties, she hopes it will go towards the right place.
"It's really important that any penalty money associated with a case like this or any environmental issue goes back into the community that was harmed because otherwise that funding is getting sucked out of Baltimore City," she said. "It's about everybody experiencing this type of harm and having the right to restitution."
It's unclear how long the investigation will take.
