On June 13, 2010, Chevron’s oil pipe leaked 33,000 gallons of oil into the Red Butte Creek.  This oil emptied into the pond at Liberty Park and eventually seeped into the Jordan River.  Yesterday, I went to Liberty Park to survey the damage.

The pond looks pretty good, there is no obvious oil sheen.  The area still smells like a gas station, but the smell is way better than earlier in the week.  A week before, I could smell gas from across four lanes of traffic as I biked to work (and no, it wasn’t just the smell of the traffic).

The pond is blocked off, there are gas tanks and trucks everywhere and security guards walk around, making sure that people don’t trespass or take pictures.

On Saturday, Chevron flushed the pipe to remove oil from the creek.  As a result, 400 gallons of oil emptied into Liberty Pond where the crew vacuumed up the oil.

They seem to be doing a very thorough job.  People were digging at the soil and vacuuming up material.  It’s very important to clean the soil.  The Exxon Valdez oil spill, for example, occurred in 1989 and people are still finding oil in Alaska from the spill.

I hope they’ll do a similarly thorough job in the Gulf if the oil ever stops flowing.  The tally of dead birds that IRBBC has collected has almost reached 1,000.  Won’t that be a milestone.  You can get updates here and a daily tally of dead animals here.