The Nation - News from May 11, 1989

An estimated 1 million gallons of fuel leaked over a period of months from pipes at Adak Naval Air Station in Alaska, soaking the tundra with diesel oil, the Navy reported. The remote island Navy base doubles as a wildlife refuge. The JP5 diesel fuel, used as heating oil for buildings on Adak Island, seeped out of aging pipes and may have been doing so for months, contaminating the tundra, Navy officials said. Adak Naval Air Station fuel director John Curtis allegedly knew about the leak for months but failed to report it and has been relieved of his duties pending a criminal probe, said Lt. Max Jenkins, staff judge advocate and counsel to a Navy board of inquiry investigating the spill.