Steve Conway (top right), an employee of Op-Tech Environmental Services, Inc., uses a plastic bag to collect contaminated ice fragments located alongside the northern bank of the Erie Canal, just west of the Route 259 bridge in Spencerport. It was tedious work, but fortunately, the almost zero temperature on Monday was relieved by temperatures in the low 30s on Tuesday, December 21, when these pictures were taken. The workers expected to be back after Christmas to finish the job.

Four booms, two absorption and two harbor, (physical barriers), extend across the Erie Canal at the Adams Basin bridge. The skiff was used to place the booms.

Cold complicates fuel spill clean up

A gash in an underground pipe in the Erie Canal in Gates that spilled close to 30,000 gallons of fuel, has migrated west toward Spencerport and Adams Basin in Ogden and on to the Village of Brockport. The leak was discovered on December 15. The events surrounding the gash in the pipe are under investigation.

Village of Brockport Mayor Josephine Matela said she received a call from Bruce Finster, head of the spills unit of the Department of Environmental Conservation, and he assured her that everything possible was being done to mitigate the gas spill and collect it.

"The DEC said they would be putting booms up at Route 19 to contain the fuel," she said. "They have been quite reassuring and are on top of the situation. We've relied on their expertise to take care of this situation."

Dave Widger, highway superintendent in the Town of Ogden, said he was contacted by DEC officials who requested the bridge on Washington Street in Adam's Basin be raised to expedite the clean-up efforts.

Calls to the DEC were not returned before press time.