Spill along New River in Fort Lauderdale under investigation
MIAMI - A view from above the New River from Chopper 4 shows the stretch between the Las Olas Isles and downtown. There is a sheen on the water, it appears to be fuel.
"I'm I'm very curious, you know, anxious to find out why this has happened," said Steve Rosenberg. He is with the Surfrider Foundation. He's worried about how this could impact the environment.
"One of my biggest concerns, of course, is the impact it's gonna have on the marine life that's obviously not healthy for them. And it's also not healthy for humans to enter the water in that kind of environment," he said.
Fort Lauderdale Police noticed the slick at about 11 in the morning just east of U-S 1 on the New River. In a statement, police said, "Officers were able to follow the fuel along the New River however, due to the outgoing tide, they were unable to determine the source of the spill."
With tides pushing and pulling the slick, it's difficult to find where it's coming from.
"The problem was, all this traffic through the folk of the river, every time a yacht would pull by it would suck out, with the slag tide it would stay, so it's traveling. I don't know where it came from. I'd love to know where it came from," said Julian Siegel. He is an avid boater. He shared pictures from his backyard from Sunday morning. The sheen was already there.
"I saw a really thick slick in the north fork of the New River and I saw it was to the north and south of my property," he said.
He, like everyone, wants to know the source of this.
"I was so overwhelmed. I was wondering, Is it diesel is it gasoline, motor oil, transmission fluid? With all the crazy rain someone could have a discharge from their bilge, but it seemed excessive like it was a fuel tank ruptured," he said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is leading the investigation into what happened. It will be working with the US Coast Guard, Fort Lauderdale Police and Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue to find the source of the slick. So far, they do not have that answer.
