BERWICK, Pa. — For years, the Department of Environmental Protection has received complaints about a strong smell of fuel coming from the Susquehanna River in Berwick.
"When we responded to that, we started an investigation to determine what the source of that was, to see if there was a way to alleviate that source or remediate it," said Cheryl Sinclair, an environmental group manager with the state DEP.
Sinclair says the agency believes the odor has to do with oil leaking into the Susquehanna River. Sinclair says in 1993, an underground leak was discovered in a storage tank at the former American Car and Foundry site in Berwick.
"In our investigation, we installed groundwater monitoring wells between that area and the river to see if we can determine if that's a source or if there are other sources that may be contributing," Sinclair said.
Recently, DEP installed an oil recovery system to reduce the pollution going into the river. The pump-on-demand skimmer system runs off compressed CO2.
"It recovers free product floating on top of the water table," Darren Reilly said.
The oil is separated into a drum where it is stored until taken offsite for proper disposal.
"We're out here regularly, probably twice a month, monitoring and adjusting the depth to the pump to make sure we're capturing the product," Reilly said.
Officials say while it does not completely fix the problem, it does reduce the amount of oil that's been going into the Susquehanna River.
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