Befuddled over a lack of cleanup specifics and fearful Salt Lake City's oil spill also could foul their property values, growing ranks of residents worry their east-bench sanctuary could be forever tarnished.
The babbling brook that prompted so many to buy homes in Yalecrest has become a caramel-colored catastrophe.
"Right now, I wonder if you could even sell the property," shrugged Tom Kurrus, a 35-year resident of Yale Avenue. "It's kind of like one of your kids is sick. I wish they could make it well."
Nearly 300 neighbors put Chevron in the cross hairs at a Monday town hall at Clayton Middle School and many left unsatisfied. "I can't believe they called a meeting without a plan," howled Nina Vought as security guards shuffled the crowd out the schoolhouse's front door to beat the evening lockdown.
Vought's 12-year-old son is so ill from the fumes circling Red Butte Creek, the family is moving into a hotel.
City officials expected a detailed cleanup plan Monday morning, then that night. Now, the oil giant says the blueprint first must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal bureaucracies -- - - - and parts may never be publicly released.
While everyone waits, officials from Chevron and the city use reassuring tones. But the realistic cleanup projection is more ominous.
"This cleanup will not happen quickly," Chevron spokesman Mark Sullivan acknowledged amid groans from the audience. The effects will linger, he said, "through the summer."
"I want to manage expectations," City Council Chairman J.T. Martin added. "This is going to be a long summer, into the fall. We're going to be dealing with this into the spring."
Even Mayor Ralph Becker conceded "very little" of the cleanup is complete.
"We're just really getting started," Becker said. At same time, the mayor labeled the professionalism and competence by all involved "remarkable" and said interaction among agencies has been "extraordinary."
But no one knows what methods will be employed or how deep Chevron will reach into its pocketbook. Will the creek bed get power-washed? Will rocks be scrubbed by hand? Can the underground culverts be cleaned? How can crews squeeze equipment into the thick riparian corridor, where 50-foot banks descend like mini-canyons.
"It's just a small fraction of their profits that can go into a proper and quick cleanup," said Yale Avenue's Rebecca England, who sighed that "the Gulf of Mexico is in my backyard."
"I'm afraid they're only going to do what they have to, according to regulations. They're motivated by profit and PR."
To illustrate the damage, residents are quick to thumb through pictures of the blackened creek on their iPhones. It is like a pocket-size scene of the cocoa creek in the film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" has perversely sprung to life.
Bryan Tucker, a Houston-based vice president for Chevron pipeline, says all of the cleansing methods are being considered, but must be carried out by qualified, trained workers who must work with government agencies. He said the "Incident Action Plan" still is evolving, but stressed Chevron is committed to pay for all cleanup and claims.
Technical experts, hired by the city, should assist with the plan, says Public Utilities Director Jeff Niermeyer.
Some neighbors worry the oil has so saturated the soil that major digging will be necessary. At the same time, they fret that could compromise the delicate Red Butte corridor.
"If we get a heavy rain, there's no way we're going to get containment," Kurrus said.
Becker and Chevron officials suggest the creek will be cleaned by hand, and they say the work will not cease until the community and environment are made whole. To be sure, the Yalecrest neighborhood is one of the most civically engaged and well-heeled in Utah -- and not likely to stay passive. Plus, in the wake of BP's Gulf disaster, everyone speaks oil spill.
Resident Ben Rivkind urged Chevron to put its promises in writing and "drop your corporate shield."
"We stand by our word," Tucker said
"We've heard it before," Rivkind responded.
Chevron first learned of the Red Butte Creek oil spill at 7:44 a.m. Saturday, 51 minutes after Salt Lake City Fire Department officials were notified. That also was 10 hours and 25 minutes after a power outage and arc could have blown the pipe open. Representatives from the oil giant arrived on scene "prior to 10 a.m.," at which time crude had long since reached the pond at Liberty Park and the Jordan River.
That account came from Deputy Fire Chief Karl Lieb, who nonetheless praised Chevron in a Tuesday briefing to the City Council for bringing the "appropriate resources."
City officials gathered at the Emergency Operations Center and quickly decided to steer the rest of the spill to the Liberty pond for the best containment. Communications Director Karen Hale served as acting mayor, while Mayor Ralph Becker booked a flight back to Salt Lake City from a mayors conference in Oklahoma City.
The source of the pipeline break was discovered by two firefighters who walked the creek corridor eastward from near the Veterans Administration Medical Center.
Residents were notified of the spill via Twitter, Facebook and frequent news releases.
As of Tuesday, Becker noted, 500 barrels, or 21,000 gallons, of oil have been recovered by cleanup crews. An air-quality test shows all samples are "clean," the mayor said.
Derek P. Jensen
