More than a thousand gallons of diesel fuel — of the 1,700 spilled total — escaped from Stanley Hall and could have entered Strawberry Creek, according to campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore.
After an equipment failure Saturday caused a tank to overflow in the basement of Stanley Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, 1,290 gallons of oil flowed out of the building, although the exact amount that went into the creek, and the San Francisco Bay, remains unknown. As of Sunday evening, emergency crews were working to clean up the approximately 1,700 gallons of oil spilled, and the building was closed to the public. By 7:30 a.m. Monday, the building had re-opened in time for final exams, according to Gilmore.
Gilmore said in an email that although it has not yet been determined how much oil made its way into Strawberry Creek — which flows through campus and ends in the Bay — “the public is asked to stay out of the creek.”
She added that the clean up, monitoring and assessing of the condition of the creek as well as the Bay will continue tomorrow.
A faint smell of fuel could be detected near the hall Sunday, where cars and trucks from Berkeley Fire Department, UCPD, the California Department of Fish and Game, UC Berkeley Physical Plant-Campus Services, UC Berkeley Parking & Transportation, among others lined the curb outside.
The fuel, which is used to power an emergency generator in the building, overflowed while being transferred from a storage tank nearby Saturday evening. As of 9 p.m. Saturday, the leak was contained. Gilmore said in an email Sunday evening that the exact cause of the equipment failure remains unknown.
A sign posted on the doors of the hall — a large building near the northeast corner of campus — states that the building is closed until further notice, citing “toxic fumes and potential of ignition.”
“UCPD, Fire Department, EH&S and building management notified,” the sign reads. “Haz Mat team dispatched.”
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.
This is akin to the Stonehenge prop in This is Spinal Tap. Look at the guy with the paper towels, lol!
this is really no big deal. the enviros and liberals get all worked up over the most trivial things.
Go drink 1,290 gallons of diesel fuel.
you mean people who care?
You’re completely wrong, and what is sadder (and representative of so many bigger social problems) is that you immediately reduce this issue to one of bipartisan politics… stop trolling, I sincerely hope that your ignorance is not the product of a UC Berkeley education.
Operation Excrement, or Shit Happens.
There is no toxic fumes from diesel! But there will be damage to the plant life around the creek.
Workers on campus have worried for a long time that this kind of thing would happen. Deferred maintenance, staff shortage and outdated equipment makes the campus, especially the labs, more dangerous each year.
Operational Excellence at work!
It’s a brand new building, retard. It opened in 2007.
Why the !@#^ does Stanley Hall have emergency backup generators to begin with? Is there an ICU in there that I don’t know about?
dude we live on a fault.
because some lab equipment requires power 24/7 (i.e. incubators)
So BP+drug company science’s screwup is allowed to kill the creek, and in the big earthquake they will be able to run incubators after all the grad students and techs living in substandard housing are dead. Doesn’t make sense. The generator is to allow “normal operations” despite things like protests or utility company screwups. Building managers send out emails to that effect every time there is notification of an event from high up administrators.
It’s a research facility. A power outage could literally cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage. Of course, morons like you are probably don’t even know what “research” is.
The startup time of those diesel generators is long enough to cause a loss of power of the sort you talk about. Tell me have you ever run an electric plant for a major installation? They would lose some freezers and incubators. What is the basis for your hundreds of millions of dollars cost estimate? Have you ever prepared a budget for NSF before?
OH NO.
Seriously…my first final is there on Monday -.-” ……..
I can smell fumes in my yard on Allston Way, where the creek emerges from the culvert
what the heck! i drink outta strawberry creek. this is bogus.
Operational Excellence.
you da best soumyaaa
equipment failure?
Stanley is a brand new facility.
Did Cal buy a lemon?
Wow. Way to over-react.