Two and half years later, site of Olympic Pipeline gasoline spill shows minor contamination

CONWAY - Two and half years after a leak in the Olympic Pipeline allowed thousands of gallons of gasoline to get into the soil and water in Conway, a report shows some minor contamination remains.

In December 2023, a small, degraded piece of tubing allowed about 21,000 gallons of gasoline to get into the environment.

BP operates the Olympic Pipeline, which runs from Blaine to Portland and connects to four refineries, including the two in Anacortes. The pipeline is used to move gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

The spilled gasoline filled a large concrete vault that sits across the street from Conway School, and flowed into surrounding soil and the nearby Hill Ditch.

The incident killed a beaver and several birds, and temporarily closed down the school and Highway 534.

Through the course of a three-month response, crews took away 332,776 gallons of oily water and 11,973 cubic yards of contaminated soil.

Since then, the site has transitioned from the state Department of Ecology's emergency spill response to its Voluntary Cleanup Program.

"The site has been characterized enough to know that there's not an imminent threat to human health and the environment," said Ecology Voluntary Cleanup Program Site Manager Michael Warfel.

Since entering into a voluntary cleanup of the site, BP has replaced the tubing and installed additional alarms.

A remediation services company took soil samples in fall 2025 to test for contamination.

The report, released April 14, shows pockets of contamination.

"There's a small number of locations where there are some single samples that are still above our (allowed) cleanup levels," said Warfel.

The pockets are isolated from each other, and between one and six feet underground.

The remaining contamination is largely close to the concrete vault from which the gasoline spilled.

The remediation services company detected benzene and gasoline organics at concentrations above the state limit.

Toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene were detected, but were below state levels.

The chemicals that were found are carcinogens, or create concerns about their impact on breathing.

The contamination did not reach the neighboring groundwater, said Warfel.

Petroleum eventually breaks down naturally in the ground, in a process called natural attenuation, said Warfel.

Ecology intends to wait for the contaminants to degrade naturally, rather than digging up the area again.

The department decided that the contaminated areas are out of reach of animals, plants and people, and is not a danger to them.

"It's not causing any problems right now," said Warfel.

Ecology will continue checking contaminant levels. After the cleanup is done, crews will work to replant the disturbed site, said Warfel.

It's estimated that it will take about five years for the site to return to normal.

In November 2025, Ecology fined BP $3.8 million for the spill, finding that although BP had regularly inspected the vault that contained the tubing, it had not noticed the corroded carbon steel nut that led to the leak.

"BP, as operator of Olympic Pipeline, remains committed to safe and reliable operations at all our facilities," BP spokesperson Paul Takahashi said in an email. "We have proactively applied our learnings from the incident. We continue to work with PHMSA and state regulators to apply any additional learnings from the incident."

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