On March 29, 2012, the PDO dispatched OSC Brescia and EPA START to the scene to conduct an assessment. EPA OSC Brescia and EPA START arrived on scene and were briefed by the EPA Enforcement Officer and the RP on the current situation. The release occurred from a water knock out at a water dump causing oil and saltwater to be released out of a secondary containment area onto land and into an unnamed creek. The RP informed EPA that he observed approximately ¾ of a mile of creek impacted from the spill and that the majority of the product was contained at the HWY 33 intersection bridge.

The RP had instructed one underflow dam in a portion of the creek and had placed boom in multiple sections of the creek. The RP had begun vacuum and flushing operations in the creek area in an attempt to recover the free product. A USFW representative was on site and assisted in the initial assessment. The USFW representative informed the RP that the area of the spill location was designated as habitat for the Burying Beetle and that the RP needed to minimize soil disturbances during the cleanup operation. USFW also informed the RP to consult with USFW if areas needed to be disturbed to conduct the cleanup operations. The RP agreed. EPA OSC Brescia and EPA START began their assessment of the spill location and of the impacted creek area. EPA OSC Brescia requested that the RP divide and increase his resources on site to work on two portions of the creek simultaneously. The RP agreed. OSC Brescia also requested that the RP reconstruct their underflow dam to allow water to flow through the dam properly. The dam had been constructed and was not allowing water to flow through it.The RP agreed and repositioned the flow pipe to allow water to flow through the dam location.

OSC Brescia created a Scope of Work(SOW) for the cleanup activities and discussed the SOW with the RP. The SOW included the following: recover all oil from the creek area utilizing mechanical and manual techniques, removal of pockets of oil from sediment utilizing mechanical and manual techniques, flush impacted areas of the creek with water and collect rinsate, remove all heavily oiled vegetation from the creek area, remove all oil impacted soil from the spill location to the entrance of the creek, and remediate/dispose of all impacted soil/rinsate/boom/pads appropriately. OSC Brescia informed the RP to follow OCC rules on soil remediation. The RP agreed to the SOW. EPA START conducted an assessment from the spill location down to and past the HWY 33 intersection. Two large pools were observed during the assessment. One pool was located above the underflow dam area and one was located at the HWY 33 Intersection bridge. Three smaller pools were observed between the spill location and the underflow dam location. Due to access issues, EPA START was unable to assess further downstream at the HWY 33 Intersection bridge. EPA START will continue their down creek assessment on 03/30/2012. The RP focused cleanup efforts on the two large pools identified. The RP informed OSC Brescia that their daily cleanup operations recovered approximately 175 bbls of oil/water. Approximately 70 bbls of oil were recovered and 105 bbls of saltwater/water were recovered. OSC Brescia observed during the cleanup that the RP was discharging the collected water back to the creek after separation of the oil, and informed the RP that they could not discharge the water back unless the RP could prove the salinity level was at or below background and no residual oil was present. The RP began disposing of all water collected from the recovery operations. The salt water/water collected estimate of 105 bbls can not be verified.