Gainesville Police are investigating an oil spill that forced city officials to close a portion of Southwest Second Avenue in the southwest portion of Gainesville’s Innovation District for more than four hours Saturday.
Spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said Monday the department could not say how it happened.
At about 9 a.m. Saturday, GPD officers responded to a report of an oil spill in the area between the 600 and 1000 block of Southwest Second Avenue. Officers closed the road while officials from the Gainesville Fire Rescue Hazardous Materials Response Team attempted to clean the oil off the street.
Because of the “magnitude of the spill,” Tobias said, fire rescue officials used dump trucks filled with sand to remove the oil. By 2 p.m., officials cleaned up the oil and reopened the road for traffic and pedestrians. The spill was not big enough for state environmental agencies to get involved.
“No impact to the environment from the spill was reported,” said Mara Burger, a public information specialist for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Burger said oil spills, especially those that happen in Florida, should be taken seriously in every circumstance. One reason, she said, is because the state has shallow aquifers, which is easy for oil to seep into. Most oil spills in cities, she added, are caused by vehicle accidents.
“We don’t want the storm drains to be filled with oil, and we don’t want fuel to get into our water systems,” she said. “Any spills that can seep into the ground or our water supply can end up being dangerous.”
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 10/29/2013 under the headline "Oil spill closed part of Second Avenue"
