More than 500 gulls found dead in Cuyahoga River

By MICHAEL SCOTT

This was supposed to be a triumphant week for the Cuyahoga River.

Instead — during the week of the 40th anniversary of the June 22, 1969, fire on the river — it turned into an ecological nightmare.

More that 500 ring-billed gulls were found dead and 30 or 40 others covered in oil near the ArcelorMittal Steel plant, EPA investigator Jim Irwin said Friday.

Investigators were still pulling dead and dying gulls from the river late in the day near the plant and near a large pipe known as the Kingsbury Run sewer. All the birds were victims of what officials say was a spill of hundreds of gallons of a type of cooking oil.

Investigators will have the oil analyzed to try to determine where it came from and who dumped it.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District called the Ohio EPA on Wednesday to report that the substance had slipped into the river under a containment boom at the Kingsbury Run tributary, EPA officials said.

“We capture stuff there on a routine basis and noticed oil there earlier this week,” said District Executive Director Julius Ciaccia. “When, or if, it breached our facility, we don’t know for sure.”

EPA spokesman Mike Settles said investigators on the scene said the oil spill appeared to have dispersed or been absorbed by the birds and debris and would not affect any more birds. Other larger birds and fish also seem unaffected.

But state wildlife workers had to euthanize contaminated gulls that survived the oil spill.

“The gulls affected by the oily substance are very weak,” said Dan Kramer, a supervisor for the Division of Wildlife. He said there is an effort to lower the gull population in Cleveland, so the state would not spend money to rehabilitate the birds.

Tens of thousands of gulls have nested near the steel mill, which has been idled since May. Wildlife officials believe the birds got into the oil while feeding off fish in the river.

Anyone who has information about the source of the pollution should call the Ohio EPA at (330) 963-1191.

The site of the bird die-off is roughly the spot where on Monday environmentalists and officials aboard a cruise ship celebrated the ongoing recovery of the river from the infamous fire.