On Sunday February 9, 2025, the City of York was notified by a member of the public that there had been a spill in Willis Run and Kiwanis Lake. The complainant followed the bright rainbow sheen upstream to an outfall point near the intersection of Wood Street and Maryland Avenue. At that time, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) emergency responders arrived on the scene to investigate and mitigate the spill. The substance was determined to be some kind of diesel fuel or home heating oil as the smell was very overpowering; PADEP set booms in the creek to make dams able to capture the floating substance and laid absorbent towels on top to soak up the oil in several areas of the creek above Kiwanis Lake.
On Monday February 10, 2025, PADEP and the City of York’s MS4 Coordinator (Stormwater Manager) reconvened at Willis Run upstream of Kiwanis Lake to lay more dams and saw the sheens getting further downstream. Another type of boom was placed between the Pennsylvania Avenue bridge and the footbridge as well as dams downstream of the lake under the Newberry Street bridge.
On Tuesday February 11, 2025, Republic Services responded to the scene and began to skim the accumulated material collected behind the booms into their truck for disposal. Also, USG, an underground utility locating company, came out to televise the storm line to see if we could find out where the oil came from. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a source.
It is now believed that someone may have dumped the substance at the outfall from the grassy area above it. If anyone in the area of Wood Street, Maryland Avenue and Village Road has seen anything suspicious around Friday or Saturday last weekend, please reach out to the City’s MS4 Stormwater Coordinator Lettice Brown at (717) 324-6532. This investigation and cleanup are ongoing.
