Remember the Waller Creek oil spill in January? A buried oil tank under the back alley between the Littlefield Building and the Driskill Hotel got sluiced out by a broken water main, dumping pollution into the storm drains and finally into Waller Creek. The water was cleaned up pretty quickly, but then came a long process of working out whose tank it was and any legal culpability. This meant a delay in finally clearing up and reopening the alley, which has remained sealed off with the leak site covered with plastic sheeting.

Good news. Stephanie Lott with the city’s Watershed Protection and Development Review Department just called to say council has been given a memo confirming that remediation activity (i.e., fixing the hole) will start this week. HVP Austin Littlefield, the building’s owners, have entered into a voluntary clean-up agreement with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The contractor will remove the contaminated soil and fill the space with slurry concrete.

This article appears in August 15 • 2008.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.