Community lectures will examine Red Butte Creek oil-spill impact

SALT LAKE CITY — With cleanup nearly over and the focus shifted to remediation, the impacts of the June oil spill of 33,000 gallons into Red Butte Creek will be explored in a series of community lectures presented each week this month.

A news release put out by the Jordan River Watershed Council said the University of Utah is tapping faculty members and community leaders for the series, which will include 30-minute talks and "readings" to support the theme.

The series kicked off Wednesday,with Christine Pomeroy from the U.'s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Pomeroy addressed the nature of aquatic life upstream and downstream from urban streams that pass through the Salt Lake Valley.

Coming lectures will be held on Thursdays at 6:30 p.m., with discussions ranging from engineering challenges in urban streams to dissecting the "fingerprints" of oil and exploring how scientists can pinpoint sources of contamination.

The June 11 breach of the Chevron pipeline near Red Butte Creek impacted dozens of adjacent homeowners, forced the closure of the pond at Liberty Park and sent some oil into the Jordan River, already listed as one of the nation's most imperiled rivers because of pollution.

Around-the-clock cleanup efforts began after the spill was first reported, and an investigation by the federal Office of Pipeline Safety is continuing. Chevron officials say they expect to complete excavation work at the spill site near Red Butte Gardens this week. To date, more than 1,000 tons of soil has been moved.

For more information on the lecture series, go to environment.utah.edu/urbanstream.html.

at Rowland Hall-St. Mark's, 720 Guardsman Way, E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com