STANSBURY ISLAND, Utah — Utah agencies that have looked into the 55-gallon drums leaking what's being called a "sludge" said there is no danger to the public, but the investigation continues.
“Very visible leakage of this material out into the environment in an ecosystem that’s infernally sensitive,” explained Lexi Tuddenham, Executive Director at The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah
The nearly one dozen drums were discovered by a hiker on Thanksgiving morning, but Tuddenham says the barrels aren't the first time something’s been dumped at the Great Salt Lake.
“I wasn’t that surprised; this happens," she shared. "People dump material they don’t want to pay for proper disposal fees, and there are a lot of material we create in our modern lives that are hard to dispose of.”
Mysterious 'sludge' found leaking from multiple 55-gallon drums on Stansbury Island:
Tuddenham is simply thankful someone called in to report the leaking drums.
“What was stored in these drums, perhaps for a time it wasn’t actively leaking out into the environment, but typically the things we create outlast their storage containers,” she said.
Illegal disposal in the area has a history.
“It is a terminal lake, so historically a lot of industries could just dump directly into there,” explained Tuddenham.
Despite the hiker's discovery last week, the Tooele County Health Department has known about the barrels for a few months.
“September is actually when they were first called in. So that’s when the initial testing happened,” said Brent Peterson, the department's public information officer.
It wasn't until around Thanksgiving that the unknown substance leaking from the barrels was brought to their attention.
“We went out there along with the Hazmat team from the Department of Environmental Quality and tested the substance," Peterson said. "The initial test came back as it being nonhazardous or a no-threat substance.”
DEQ is still investigating how the drums ended up where they did, and is determining what the substance is so it can be cleaned up properly.
