DICKERSON, Md. (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency says a NRG Energy power plant in Dickerson, Maryland, is the source of an oil spill that caused a rainbow sheen on the Potomac River near Washington last week.
The agency said in a statement Monday that laboratory analysis identified the substance as lubricating oil. The EPA says less than 150 gallons were discharged, and the spill has largely dissipated.
The EPA says Princeton, New Jersey-based NRG has accepted responsibility for the spill.
The plant is about 40 miles upstream from the nation’s capital, and about 23 miles from a Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission drinking-water intake pipe. The commission placed booms in the river last week as a precaution but said the sheen was never seen near the intake, and drinking water quality wasn’t affected.
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