Waller Getting Weller

The stink of fuel oil still fills the air on Sixth Street as clean-up crews deal with the leak that spewed into Waller Creek on Thursday. A water main burst between Congress and Brazos and seemingly flushed an old buried tank out, and some of it got through the storm drains to the creek.

Pumping removed most of the leak but on Saturday afternoon it was still so thick it was folding over on itself. There is progress: Clean-up crews from Eagle Construction and Environmental Services, L.P. had pulled the surface boom up to the stretch between Fifth and Sixth, and were using absorbent pads and foam sponges to soak the oil up, as well as pumps to remove larger volumes. This first stage should be over at the beginning of the week, but the local limestone is porous enough to soak up oil that could still leach out later.

Bad as it undeniably is, it could have been a lot worse for local wildlife, which got lucky in three ways. The first was that this was fuel oil, not gasoline, so less toxic. The second was that, while it got into Waller Creek, it was contained before it could get downstream into the environmentally sensitive wetlands south of Cesar Chavez. However, the stretch hit worst by the discharge, between Sixth and Fourth, is often home to turtles. That's the third bullet that has been dodged: the crew said, so far, no large animals have been found dead.