Oil Spills into Potomac River near D.C. Airport

An estimated 7,500 to 9,000 gallons of Jet A aviation fuel has spilled within Washington D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and into the Potomac River, Friday.

A Unified Command consisting of the U.S. Coast Guard; Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority personnel, including Airport Operations and Fire and Rescue; D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and D.C. Harbor Patrol has been established and is responding to the spill.

Airport operations have not been impacted.

The Coast Guard, which is serving as the Federal On-Scene Coordinator overseeing the Unified Command’s response, said watchstanders at its Baltimore sector received a report from the National Response Center of approximately 8,000 gallons of unaccounted Jet Fuel with some reaching the Potomac River.

The Coast Guard said its helicopter crew observed the fuel was largely contained around the source of the discharge, extending to Four Mile Run and the southern boundary of Reagan National Airport. As of 10 a.m. Friday, the source of the spill is secure, and the spill has not reached the main channel of the river. The Coast Guard has adjusted an initial Safety Zone on the Potomac River to cover an area within a 1,500 yard radius of the emanation point from the airport.

An environmental cleanup team, Miller Environmental, was contracted by Allied Aviation Fueling, the fuel contractor for the airlines at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, to undertake the cleanup efforts. Cleanup efforts are ongoing. 

Following consultation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it is believed the environmental impact from the spill is limited.