It was last summer in Marshall when it happened. It was a hot day, in the 80's, and people were talking about going over to the sand bar to do a little swimming. I was going too but first had to go to the gas station to get some gas. On the way I saw a lot of people running up and down the hill with white rags. As I got closer to them I smelled gas. Then I saw people had gas masks on. I parked and asked what was going on. Pete Hunks said that there was a big gas spill. One of their big tanks had a leak in it. I asked if they needed help and Raymond Huck, the mayor, said that I needed a face mask. So I went to the gas station and asked Ben if he had any more gas masks. He went inside to look for more of them and when he came back he said that this was the last of them. Then I ran back down the hill to help them. Pete told me to stay on the right side of the road because there was a lot of gas going down the hill.

We used a lot of white rags, and because the gas station was running out of them we had to think of something else to use besides the rags. So we got all the old clothing from the hall and used those. After we got the clothes we went to work again. Then a plane came in from Anchorage to see how big the spill was.

Later a team of people came in to show us how to clean up spills like this one. They had cool-looking equipment for cleaning up the spill and we watched how they cleaned it up. Afterwards the boss asked us if we wanted training to clean up gasoline, oil or toxic waste spills. He also told us there was a two week training session coming up in June in Bethel. If people were willing to try for it they were welcome.

After the professional clean-up crew was done, they said we could do the rest of the job by ourself. But the man they called boss stayed around to see how everything worked out. It was a good learning experience for everybody.

John Tikiun

Ozone Depletion!

Water Pollution!