Riverkeeper: Play it safe and avoid recreational use of river below Williamsport dam as spill cleanup continues

A rainbow-like oily sheen can still be seen on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, across coves of the West Branch of the Susquehanna river just below the Williamsport Dam after a spill event related to Eureka Resources on Sunday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 19, 2025, residue from an oil spill reported Sunday evening, Aug. 17, by two fishermen on the Susquehanna River's West Branch just below the Williamsport dam, was still visible along the river's edge and in various coves and eddies.

"While various groups responding to the situation have not declared any sort of public health concern, I think it is smart to avoid using the river from below the Williamsport dam to at least Greevy's Boat Launch, if not the town of Montgomery," said Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper John Zaktansky. "With the lower water table, it is easy for pockets of this oily wastewater to pool up in eddies and not really flush downstream and we don't really know for sure what all was in the fluid that leaked from the Eureka facility. It is best to play it safe until more information is available."

According to a statement released by the regional Department of Environmental Protection, the agency responded to the spill Sunday, tracing it to its source of an aboveground storage tank at the Eureka Resources facility on Second Street near the Hepburn Street pumping station. The spill reached a storm drain that emptied into the pumping station that goes into the river.

"DEP and Lycoming County EMA deployed absorbent boom in the river to contain the spill," the DEP statement relayed. "DEP's investigation found that approximately 16,000 gallons of wastewater was released from the 26,000-gallon storage tank, with upwards of 8,000 gallons of that being outside of the tank's containment area and into a building on site."

While the discharge from the facility has ceased, according to DEP, the agency continues its investigation and will oversee cleanup efforts. DEP was also in touch with PA American Water's drinking water facility in Milton, the first drinking water draw on the river south of the spill site, and DEP reports there are no impacts to drinking water. 

"However, there is still quite a bit of noticeable impacts along the river just below the spill site on Tuesday afternoon," according to Zaktansky. "There continues to be a strong smell of oil along the riverbank and an oily coating on some of the river's stones along the banks. In different ripple sections, you can still see active sheens of oil, especially around vegetation that absorbed the waste fluid like a sponge and releases it each time it is bumped. And there are still pools of rainbow-covered sheen all depending on what angle you view the river from." 

All of this, he said, is a reminder that it will take some time for cleanup efforts, for nature to bounce back from this spill and for various groups involved to fully understand what all the impacts could be. 

"Fluids used in the fracking industry continue to be shrouded in mystery, with most of us unaware of the full set of compounds in most of what may be used," he added. "This incident is another example of why we need more transparency in what chemicals continue to be pumped into our environment because eventually, they are going to have an impact on us and we need to be ready to respond.

"This time, it may have simply been an oil we are somewhat used to (not that it makes it OK) or could have been some other oil-based cocktail of who knows what. Either way, I know I wouldn't go swimming in this section of river just yet, or let my kids play in it, would you?"

A patch of vegetation releases an oily fluid into the river each time it is impacted by an outside pressure, like a rock hitting it.

Patches of stones along the river's edge were shiny and covered with an oily substance two days after a spill was reported and agencies responded.

An oily liquid is trapped in the Hepburn Street pump house and slowly removed by Eagle Response team as part of cleanup efforts on Tuesday.

​Ironically, as he was checking out the situation, taking photos and talking with officials who were working on cleanup efforts, Zaktansky said that numerous people from the community continued to access the river site, basically unaware of the situation.

"Multiple people worked their way down to the riverbank with fishing poles, and one older guy without a shirt carried down a pair of buckets and then strapped on swim fins and a snorkel, preparing to swim just below the Hepburn Street outfall cleanup boom like it was some sort of public swimming rope," Zaktansky said. "We need to make a better effort to publicly alert people to steer clear of this area for the time being. Encourage them to check out the river upstream somewhere else for a while, again, just to be safe and things settle down."

As more information becomes available, especially involving the investigation into Eureka, it will be shared.