Two oil barrels found Monday in a stream just off the Carson River did not leak any chemicals into the water, but that did not incense Ken Arnold any less as he watched geese swimming nearby.
"For someone to dump into a stream is godawful aggravating to me," said Arnold, Carson City's deputy health director. "I can't believe somebody did something that stupid."
The two 55-gallon barrels lay side by side in a stream about 25 yards from its outlet into the Carson River, just off Morgan Mill Road. A resident found the barrels Monday and reported them to the Bureau of Land Management, which has its Carson City Field Office only a few hundred yards to the east.
BLM called city environmental control officer Deborah Wiggins early Tuesday and she and Arnold were on the site by 8 a.m.
Even though the barrels did not contaminate the water, Arnold ranked the illegal dumping and hazardous waste disposal crimes as high as anything the city Environmental Control Division faces.
"This is a freaking 10," Arnold said. "I'm so mad I can't even see straight."
Arnold immediately called in the Carson City Sheriff's Department, but deputies Ken Kreider and Duane Dobbins found no fingerprints. One barrel had a Texaco sticker. The barrels had to be brought over a low barbed wire fence to end up in the stream.
The barrels were found to contain about 30 gallons of some type of solvent and 20 gallons of a caustic waste. A hazardous waste company will be brought in to identify the contents, which will be held as evidence for possible prosecution.
"If anybody recognizes these drums, please call me or the Sheriff's Department," Arnold said. "Fortunately, we got the barrels out before somebody shot holes in them."
Arnold may be reached at 887-2190, ext. 105 and information may be called in to the Sheriff's Department at 887-2020, ext. 1400.
"What an ugly picture, laying right in the stream," Arnold said. "There's geese squawking all over the place nearby. They've been yakking all morning. I watched a quail come down here (just below the barrels) to get a drink. There's a webfoot freeway only 50 feet away."
You can help
Call the Sheriff's Department at 887-2020, ext. 1400 or Deputy Health Director Ken Arnold at 887-2190, ext. 105