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Contractor hired to clean up oil spill

SARANAC LAKE – The state Department of Environmental Conservation is bringing in outside help to clean up an oil spill in the Saranac River.

The department has hired a contractor to assist in the cleanup, spokeswoman Emily Kilburn wrote in an email Monday. She didn’t provide any more details on the extent of that work or when it would take place.

Kilburn said DEC personnel responded to the spill around 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

“Upon arrival, DEC staff utilized booms to contain the spill,” Kilburn said. “As of (Monday) morning, booms are still in place and the situation is being monitored.”

Village Department of Public works employees and DEC personnel traced the spill back to the maintenance yard next to the gymnasium at Petrova Elementary School and Saranac Lake Middle School. Sometime Saturday, vandals went into the yard through an unlocked gate, damaged more than a half dozen school vehicles and dumped out at least two, 5-gallon buckets of used oil, a school official confirmed.

The oil apparently made its way into a storm drain and eventually emptied into the river near the LaPan Highway bridge. A sheen of oil was visible there and downstream through the village, as far as the Pine Street bridge Saturday afternoon and evening.

Village police are continuing their investigation of the vandalism, Patrolman John Gay said this morning. No arrests have been made so far.

Saranac Lake school Superintendent Diane Fox said school officials provided police with footage from surveillance cameras the district has in various locations around the building. However, she reviewed the footage and didn’t think it would be of much assistance.

“We have not seen anything that has helped us,” she said.

Staff were notified about the incident Monday, and they were asked if they had information.

“We’ve asked staff to keep an ear out to see if anybody is chatting about it,” Fox said. “Kids have a tendency to talk. Not that it was a student that did it, but we’re all interconnected somewhere.”

Meanwhile, the district has contacted its insurance carrier, “and they’re looking for any pertinent information to see if we have any coverage at all for this,” Fox said.

“We have insurance on our vehicles, and they’re going out for estimates (on repair costs),” she said. “We also have property damage coverage. It doesn’t look like we had any property damage, but that person is going to come and inspect anyways. The other coverage we have would be for this type of general liability, the oil situation. We’re on hold with that one until the cleanup is finished and we have some additional information.”

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