Mystery of abandoned oil drums solved; dumper gets a citation

The mystery of the abandoned oil drums has been solved. It involved used motor oil, a closed dump and a real estate agent a little too eager to please.

When a Gig Harbor police officer found five rusting 55-gallon drums by the side of 54th Avenue Northwest on June 25, the result was a full-on hazardous materials alert.

One of the drums was leaking, and Gig Harbor firefighters weren’t sure what was inside. A chemical smell was noticed. HazMat technicians were called to the scene and initiated a Pierce County Hazardous Incident Team response. The barrels were cordoned off and traffic was rerouted.

As it turned out, two of the drums were empty, two contained rusty water, and one was about a quarter full of motor oil.

Further investigation, said Officer Garrett Chapman, led to a Gig Harbor real estate agent. The drums had been setting on property the agent had sold, and the new owners wanted them gone.

The correct protocol would be to take the barrels to a county dump to be disposed of, but the agent dropped them off on the side of the road, Chapman said.

A neighbor of the property recognized the barrels on a social media post and identified the person who had picked them up.

The realtor was issued a citation for illegal dumping, a misdemeanor, Chapman said.

“It’s in the court process right now, so hasn’t been resolved yet,” Chapman said. “He will likely have to pay a fine.”

Dumping contaminants on the side of the road is illegal to do due to the potential for hazardous toxins. Ty Keltner, the Spills Prevention, Preparedness and Response Communication Manager for the Department of Ecology (DOE), said the COVID pandemic can be blamed for a recent increase in illegal dumping.

“A lot of the transfer sites are closed,” Keltner said. “Folks would be at home and they had used oil and chemicals. Since the sites were not open, they would dump them in the park, and that is not acceptable. If you do have used chemicals, whether it be oil, household cleaner, paints, you hang on and store them safely where they can’t be accessed by kids or pets. Then, when you have an opportunity to go to a transfer site, you take them there.”

The closest transfer site to Gig Harbor is the Purdy Transfer Station, just outside the city’s limits. At the time of the dumping, it was closed. It has since reopened.

Although DOE does not track the amount of oil dump incidents per year, Keltner said the first six months of 2020 has seen more dumps than all of 2019.

“Folks think they can dump something, and it won’t impact people, which is not correct,” Keltner said. “It can impact people. It’s also against the law. You aren’t supposed to be dumping anything in the environment.”

Due to the increase in oil dumps, the DOE released a statement on April 27 which can be found at https://ecology.wa.gov/About-us/Get-to-know-us/News/2020/Ecology-sees-increase-in-illegal-dumping-amid-COVI.

This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 12:00 AM.