Ohio State will be responsible for cleaning up the 3,000-gallon oil spill that leaked into sewer lines and the Olentangy River after being discovered July 14. After a weeklong search, an investigation team found that an OSU underground storage tank was the source of the leak. “The capacity of oil left in the tank was extremely small. It was obvious that the tank was the source of the spill,” said Melissa Riley Patsiavo, spokeswoman for Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency. The search team discovered a large hole in a pipe that connects to the tank.”It was a fast-going leak. I assume it started leaking some time during the last 10 days,” said Cecil Smith Jr., assistant vice president of the OSU Office of Environmental Health and Safety.The investigation team said that a mechanical failure was the cause for the spill. Although OSU has a program that monitors the conditions of the underground tanks, Smith said there are limitations with the system. “Equipments do fail no matter how sophisticated they are. It’s an act of God,” Smith said.The tank, located beneath the OSU Medical Center, was surrounded by a pool of oil that also leaked into the soil, Smith said. OSU has spent $25,000 on the cleanup, which is about halfway done, he said. Smith said it is difficult to predict the total cost because the damage from the oil leak is not yet known.”At this point, we cannot determine how much oil migrated into the surrounding area. It may have gone into the complex mechanical area of the nearby buildings,” Smith said.Site inspections and laboratory tests are expected to give investigators a better profile of actual damages.”The area affected is probably small because we quickly placed the oil collection booms around the tank to contain the oil,” Smith said. A & B Sanitation, hired by OSU, is now removing the tank and excavating the contaminated soil. The company will also remove the oil from the soil.”Because everyone at OSU was very cooperative, we were able to discover the source pretty quickly although it was a leak in a complex sewer system,” Patsiavo said.