First, it was dead Canada geese and now this: An oil spill in Verona Park lake.
Pedestrians noticed an oily smell to the lake yesterday, and today there are oil-absorbing barriers at several spots on the body of water to facilitate a cleanup. That includes just before the Peckman River enters the park from the Montclair Golf Course property, at the mid-lake bridge and just before the dam at the south end.
Verona Park is part of the Essex County Parks system, so responsibility for the cleanup falls on Essex County. County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. posted to his Facebook page on Thursday afternoon that the the spill was reported by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and that Nutley Hazmat responded and placed the containment booms. A County spokesman says that the barriers will absorb the oil and will be removed once it has all been absorbed.
As for how the spill happened. DiVincenzo’s post says that “it has been determined that the source of the spill was from a leak upstream not on park property.” The park’s neighbor to the north is the Montclair Golf Club and the Peckman River runs through the west side of that property. But the spokesman would not say whether the source of the leak was the golf club…