Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Sunday that his office was investigating this weekend’s large fuel spill in Brookhaven to determine if anyone involved committed a crime as thousands of gallons of gasoline poured into nearby waterways.

 

The spill killed dozens of frogs, turtles, and fish, and contaminated Chester Creek and an elementary school’s retention pond. The leak resulted in a “large wildlife kill,” and forced the temporary closure of a sewage plant… gasoline also caused significant damage to nearby soil, and pooled at Coebourn Elementary School, which will be closed for at least two days while the damage is assessed.

 

Timothy Boyce, director of emergency services for Delaware County, said separately Sunday that it appeared as if the spillover was the result of a botched fuel delivery* to the Gas ‘N’ Go at the corner of Coebourn Boulevard and Edgmont Avenue.

 

As many as 4,700 gallons of gasoline intended to fill up tanks at the station instead flowed into nearby waterways, Boyce said. He called the spill a “very obvious and uncontrolled release of the product,” but said neither the gas station nor the supplier reported the leak, and that it didn’t come to the attention of officials until residents half a mile away began reporting the smell of gasoline Saturday morning.