{"id":428,"date":"2026-06-17T18:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=428"},"modified":"2026-06-17T18:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T18:08:30","slug":"crude-oil-surfaced-at-historic-treadwell-mine-in-juneau-the-state-plans-to-study-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=428","title":{"rendered":"Crude oil surfaced at historic Treadwell Mine in Juneau. The state plans to study it."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A short walk down the trail from the end of St. Anns Avenue on Douglas Island, a bright orange plastic fence circles the site of an old oil tank in the Treadwell Mine complex.<\/p>\n

Read more Alaska\u2019s Murkowski among Congress members seeking to save ocean science network<\/a><\/p>\n

Juneau\u2019s historic Treadwell Gold Mine is a beloved city park with trails and a nine-hole frisbee golf course weaving through the ruins. Hole two was placed between the graffiti-covered concrete remains of the Central Power Plant and the ragged metal rim of an old oil tank where crude oil burbled up. This summer, the state plans to investigate how far the pollution has spread so it can get cleaned up.<\/p>\n

Marc Wheeler, the director of parks and recreation for the City and Borough of Juneau, says a resident first reported an oil sheen at the site in August 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed to have made its way to the surface last summer,\u201d Wheeler said.<\/p>\n

He said this oil is thick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey used bunker fuel, so it\u2019s similar to what the cruise ships use,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very dense kind of tar-like fuel source.\u201d<\/p>\n

But miners must have put it there more than a century ago. So, why has it only recently risen up? Since oil floats on water, it\u2019s possible that rainfall saturating the soil in the area buoyed blobs of oil to the surface over time.<\/p>\n

Paulette Simpson, president of the Treadwell Historical Society, says this oil tank was one of several. They were part of the mine\u2019s wintertime energy transition from coal to oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first oil tanks went in in 1907 and they were there for 10 years until the mine collapsed in \u201917, and then they were drained and \u2014 my understanding \u2014 cut off,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n

This one is called day oil tank number 8. Simpson says it could hold 10,000 gallons of crude oil \u2014 enough to run the Central Power Plant next to it for 24 hours.<\/p>\n

Read more Senators weigh risk of gas pipeline project as special session deadline approaches<\/a><\/p>\n

The Alaska Treadwell Mining Company, responsible for leaving the oil behind, collapsed after a massive cave-in flooded most of the tunnels in 1917. At the time, there were no laws requiring mining companies to clean up their messes or to set aside funds for reclamation if the companies dissolved.<\/p>\n

Any remaining contamination at Treadwell falls under the purview of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. DEC\u2019s brownfields program adopts abandoned industrial sites to clean them up.<\/p>\n

Flannery Ballard is an environmental program specialist with the brownfields program. She says the first step is to study the problem. The state got a to do that this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we\u2019re going to investigate with our initial sampling is just, has contamination made out of the ring?\u201d she said. \u201cIf it has, how far widespread is it? How deep does it go?\u201d<\/p>\n

She said sampling will be limited to the oil tank site and the area immediately surrounding it. After the initial assessment, Ballard said DEC will decide whether to apply for more federal funds to clean it up.<\/p>\n

Ballard says she doesn\u2019t know how long it will take to clean up the pollution since DEC hasn\u2019t yet studied how far it\u2019s extended.<\/p>\n

Read more Crews finish GCI fiber repair, restoring full service in the Aleutians<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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