FAIRFIELD, Calif. — Travis Air Force Base has “made progress” addressing a reported jet fuel oil spill into Union Creek, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to see more done.
Since the EPA issued an order to the Air Force to take actions about the contamination of Union Creek, the base has reached out and scheduled a meeting with agencies for next week.
"The Air Force has made progress in containing oil it observed in Union Creek, but we want to see progress to preventing oil in the creek in the first place," said Tom Dunkelman, expert on the order and EPA on-scene coordinator for the Superfund and Emergency Management Division.
He says this leak has been ongoing for over a year and a half and multiple agencies were involved to try and find a solution. However, they ultimately "were not satisfied with the progress of their response actions."
The oil discharge — into Union Creek from the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield — was reportedly first identified by the Air Force as early as October 2021, but not reported to officials until Feb. 4, 2022, according to the EPA.
Dunkelman says the EPA is "pretty confident" about the oil sheen on the creek coming from a leak instead of runoff from the extra rainy winter the area had seen recently.
"The EPA collected samples of that spill and of the petroleum in the creek and two different labs confirmed that the samples from the creek and spill were very similar,” he said.
Captain Jasmine Jacobs with the Travis Air Force Base released the following statement to ABC10 Thursday:
“Travis AFB continues to work with local, state, and federal environmental partners to facilitate all aspects of mitigation, reviews and source determination projects, hosting monthly meetings and providing weekly updates to all environmental partners. The base takes impacts to the environment seriously and is committed to continued work with local, state, and federal agencies to ensure the base is in compliance with all environmental laws.”
While there are currently no drinking water concerns, the EPA says the oil discharge is causing a “substantial threat” to water bodies and shorelines in the area.
Union Creek connects into Hill Slough, which runs directly into the Grizzly and Suisun bays, which could pose a concern later.
"We all care about clean water," said Dunkelman. "We don't want petroleum contamination in waterways."
Agencies like the EPA, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, California Office of Spill Prevention and Response and Solano County will work alongside the Air Force to address this leak.
ABC10 reached out to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife about any additional concerns to wildlife in the area, but no one was readily accessible Thursday.
