Documents obtained by Fieldale And Carver Environmental Society under the Freedom of Information Act state that hydraulic oil in a quantity reported to be 40 gallons was spilled in Fieldale on August 3, 2001. The report states that water was the affected medium and lists Jordan Creek and the Smith River. Part of this report is labeled “DO NOT RELEASE this information to the public without permission from the NATIONAL RESPONSE CENTER”. Today, over 7 years later, the public is now informed of this incident. The “suspected responsible party” is listed as the organization Boxley Aggregates on Carver Road in Fieldale. While the quantity spilled is reported as 40 gallons, the quantity in the water is listed as “unknown amount”. It is noted that “attempted to dump sand on the material and dig the material up”. The report states that “media interest” was “none” and “community impact due to the material” was listed as “no”. The water supply is said to not be “contaminated” but it is “unknown” what the amount of oil that could have gotten into the water was. Who investigated and made this determination? We are not sure how or why the community should not have access to this information, nor are we clear on why the forms say “DO NOT RELEASE this information to the public”. We also wonder why our “good neighbor” didn’t tell us about this themselves? In our opinion they manage to get every photo op & professional public relations firm fluff piece in the newspaper they can. Were there no school children around to take a photo of next to the oil spill? We have heard that pictures of children and animals make people feel “warm and fuzzy”. Maybe “hazardous materials incidents” do not. We also find it interesting that while the “suspected responsible party” is listed as “Boxley Aggregates”, the “reporting party” is listed as “anonymous” rather than the company. This incident could raise a number of interesting questions For now we will let it be sufficient to say that someone apparently decided that we the public and the media were not to be informed of it. If there is a potential environmental problem with the water that flows through our community should we not know? We’re sure it was “nothing” aren’t you? How would you know? What else have we learned in our research?? More to come soon. As promised we are not going away.
