Leaking Oil Pollutes Soil, Water in Two of Alaska’s National Parks

Oil from damaged underground storage tanks and pipes has seeped into water and soil in two of the premier U.S. national parks, authorities said Tuesday.

National Park Service officials have estimated that they may need millions of dollars to clean up leaking oil at the 3.9-million-acre Katmai National Park and Preserve and the 3.3-million-acre Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

“We’re looking at $1.75 million at least, and that’s just taking out old tanks and treating them,” said John Quinley, spokesman for the Alaska office of the National Park Service. “That doesn’t include the real soil remediation.”

Katmai, in south-central Alaska, is famous for its congregation of salmon-eating bears and a vast, eerie valley created by the 1912 eruption of Novarupta Volcano.

Glacier Bay, in southeast Alaska, is famous as the site of the fastest-receding glacier in recorded history, along with abundant marine life and spectacular scenery.

The oil has seeped from old facilities built to accommodate visitors to the parks, Quinley said.

At Katmai, the problems occurred in storage tanks and fuel lines at 40-year-old Brooks Camp, the main gathering spot for visitors and bear watchers, a Park Service report says.

The fuel spills threaten Naknek Lake, the drinking water source for Brooks Camp and a key habitat for fish, birds and the brown bears that gather in the park’s streams to feast on salmon, the report said.