Fuel oil spilled into the Bronx River in the New York suburbs on Wednesday morning, and police and hazmat crews have just succeeded in tracing it to a downtown office building and stopping the flow.
Other crews have been using extended booms and vacuum pumps to begin cleaning the oil away.
A spokeswoman for the Westchester County Health Department said a preliminary estimate put the spill at "hundreds of gallons." It has reached two miles downriver to Hartsdale.
The smell of oil filled the air along the Bronx River Parkway, a major commuter route, at the end of the morning rush hour. Workers extended booms into the river to trap the spill, which left a sheen on the narrow waterway.
Because the substance appeared to be a type of heating oil that would indicate it was coming was from a large building rather than a home, officials were able to narrow the search for the source to White Plains, said Westchester County spokesman Donna Greene.
Greene said the state Department of Environmental Conservation had been notified. The river, once garbage-choked, has been substantially cleaned in recent years. Beaver and herring have been seen in the New York City portion of the river for the first time in many years. The waterway is now home to more than 40 species of fish.
The leak was tracked to a 12-story apartment building on Lexington Avenue and stanched by early afternoon, said Antoinette Biordi, a White Plains spokeswoman.
"They were able to turn it off," she said. She had no further comments.
White Plains police, its fire department and the county Health Department's hazardous materials team were on the scene, about 20 miles north of New York City.
Local
In January 2007, more than 1,000 gallons of gasoline spilled from an overfilled tank during a delivery at a service station in downtown White Plains, and some of the fuel reached the Bronx River as far as 2½ miles south.
In September, the state attorney general's office reached a $7 million settlement with municipalities including White Plains that had been accused of dumping raw sewage into the river.
