Feds join investigation into Muddy River oil spill

Goldman Sackler went for a walk along Leverett Pond early yesterday afternoon and noticed this EPA Emergency Response SUV parked in the lot between the pond and the Brook House condo complex.

Officials have said the oil that coated ducks and geese - and caused a nauseous odor - as far downstream as the MFA - apparently came from a culvert that runs by the Brook House, but have not yet said whether the complex was the source or whether the oil came from elsewhere along the culvert.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Plain and Brookline residents who have continued to patrol the river looking for more affected waterfowl say Wednesday's torrents seemed to have flushed much of the oil out of the river - which possibly means it's not in the much larger Charles River, into which the Muddy sluggishly flows via Charlesgate.

The New England Wildlife Center, which has been gathering up and treating oil-coated birds, reports (along with a photo of the cutest duck you will see today):

The washing process continues today, over the last two days 13 birds were cleaned and oil free!

To limit stress on the birds our veterinary team administers intranasally a sedative combo that will relax the bird during the long process. It is not possible to fully anesthetize them to spare them the whole ordeal because their body temperature would drop too low in the water and they would become hypothermic. This intranasal sedation is a good alternative as it chills them out but doesn’t put them fully to sleep. Without this protocol they tend to struggle, flapping their wings trying to get away. This can be dangerous and potentially result in injuries to all parties involved. Once the washing is over the medications are reversed and the birds go back to an active behavior.

For the wash itself, to know what concentrations of dawn are needed to fully remove the oil we conduct an feather wash test and wash some of the oiled feathers from the birds in different combinations of dawn dish soap too see which one will remove the oil the best. Which ever combo restores the feather to its original structure best is the winner and the formula we will use to wash the birds. This makes sure we only have to wash each bird once. So what happens to the water we bathe all these contaminated birds in? Well because the water is now contaminated with hazardous material we have to collect all the water from each wash into waste drums that are then collected by Clean Harbors a waste management company. It is not safe to let any of that discarded oil go down the drain. You can imagine how many drums we had to order since we have over 40 birds to wash.