Brookline: No new oil in Leverett Pond last week, just a scheduled inspection

A Brookline town spokesperson reports that what a UHub correspondent saw last week on Leverett Pond was not a new oil spill at all - just regular pond flotsom collected by booms put in place after the oil spill in December.

There is no new oil spill.  Last Wednesday's inspection by Clean Harbors (working for the DEP) at Leverett Pond was a scheduled event.  The DEP had Clean Harbors checking on the sorbent booms at the outfall and replacing them as needed.  It was not an oil sheen as the posted but a buildup of film on the pond.

And by "film," she means the sort of stuff that just naturally accumulates on the surface of a pond.

However, UHub's correspondent reported "a very strong odor" as she took her photos Wednesday morning. On Friday afternoon, UHub's editor drove up and parked in the public lot in front of the outfall pipe. When he walked the few feet to the pathway that runs over the pipe, he smelled oil - although nowhere near as strong as in Deember along the Muddy River downstream of the pond.

The town spokesperson said officials have yet to identify the source of December's oil spill.