"Oil sheen investigated in Muddy River
Authorities are investigating an oil sheen in the Muddy River, a small stream that runs through Brookline and Boston. Officials from the Department of Environmental Protection and local police and fire responded to an oil sheen behind Brookline Ice and Coal near Brookline Avenue and Aspenwall Avenue about 1 p.m. yesterday. The source of the slick has not been determined, said Joseph Ferson, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. The oil looks like waste oil, such as used motor oil or something someone dumped in a storm drain, Ferson said. Sheens sometimes occur after heavy rains.
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"Damage lives on from 1969 Cape oil spill; Traces from barge accident remain embedded in marsh" by Beth Daley, Globe Staff | May 21, 2010
WEST FALMOUTH — Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Chris Reddy rammed a plastic cylinder into the sticky mud of the Wild Harbor salt marsh and extracted 6 inches of muck.
“Smell this,’’ he said, taking a whiff. There, faint but unmistakable, was the stench of oil.
It’s been more than 40 years since the oil barge Florida ran aground on a foggy night in Buzzards Bay, spilling close to 200,000 gallons of fuel. Some of it is still there.
At the time of the 1969 spill, lobsters, clams, and fish died by the thousands, but most people thought the harm would be temporary, reflecting what was then the conventional wisdom.
Now, as the first tendrils of heavy oil from the leaking
Today, Wild Harbor looks much like any other Cape Cod marsh, but the oil below the surface affects its resiliency. Fiddler crabs normally burrow deep down, funneling oxygen to the roots of marsh grass. Here, they stop digging when they reach the oil, turn sideways, and burrow back to the surface. They also act “drunk’’ from the oil they ingest, and predators can catch them more easily, research shows.
“This taught us oil doesn’t always go away,’’ said Reddy, clambering through the tiny marsh in the middle of an upscale community....
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