SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The Chevron oil spill contaminated Salt Lake City water a month ago July 12. Oil remains on rocks, creek beds and in culverts. Now a group called The Citizens' Response Committee is coming forward with new questions.
The group wants to make sure Chevron does everything possible to fix the environmental disaster it caused in Salt Lake City. It wants to work with Chevron. The group is thanking the Corporation for cleaning thousands of gallons from Liberty Park and other Salt Lake City waters, but the cleanup is far from over. It's likely going to take several months.
Spokesman for the Citizens' Response Committee Peter Hayes invited ABC 4 to his home. "So this is my back yard," he said.
Hayes is thankful a 14 man crew from Chevron spent five hours scrubbing oil from about 150 feet of the creek running through his property, but he is still concerned. Pointing to a rock he said, "This is oil. You can tell its oil see there the whole thing."
He turned over several rocks and found crude oil under each one. "We want to have a positive working relationship with Chevron and our local government we're not assuming an adversarial relationship here, but we want issues to be brought up," said Hayes.
At a news conference in Liberty Park Hayes presented a list of concerns on behalf of the Citizens' Response Committee: The group would like politicians to mandate a $15 million escrow account to offset losses to property values, Chevron to clean oil from culverts, stiff fines imposed to prevent another oil spill and an independent committee to investigate what went wrong and how to prevent another oil spill.
"For us to trust Chevron completely on this. I think is a bit naive. A corporation is going to protect their interests," said Hayes.
ABC 4 brought the concerns to Chevron Spokesman Dan Johnson. "We have acknowledged responsibility for this spill and we will take care of the appropriate cost associated with the clean up," he said.
Hayes just wants oil removed from rocks and a culvert in his back yard, which Chevron has not yet agreed to do. "When the oil erodes it will continue to feed into the ecosystem and we'd just like to see as much of it cleaned out as possible," said Hayes.
Hayes is going to bring his list of concerns to a public meeting tomorrow in Salt Lake City at Clayton Middle School. It will start at 7:00 p.m. And continue for two hours.
Cleaning crews will also be at the meeting to answer questions about the cleanup.
