MAYFLOWER — A team of officials leading the cleanup of the oil spill in Mayflower says residents evacuated from their homes will begin to be allowed to return soon.
Nick Brescia, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on-scene coordinator, spoke during a news conference at Mayflower City Hall, alongside state, federal and Exxon Mobil officials who all expressed optimism with the rate of progress being made after the major spill from a ruptured oil pipeline.
Brescia said the first phase of reentry could begin as early as Thursday in the Northwoods subdivision, where 22 residents were evacuated.
Residents in four homes will be allowed to return initially and an additional eight to nine homes should be cleared shortly thereafter, perhaps as early as Friday, Brescia said.
"We are currently satisfied with the level of effort the responsible part, Exxon Mobil, has put into this," Brescia said, noting 95 percent of the oil had been removed from the subdivision. "Significant progress has been made."
Brescia said it could be longer for some of the other homes in the subdivision, where heavy equipment remains on the streets and crews are still working. He said it's too early to provide any sort of an estimate on that timetable.
Arkansas Department of Health Emergency Preparedness Chief Dr. Bill Mason said air quality readings show the neighborhood is safe for residents to return. Exxon Mobil officials say residents have the option of staying away even after being cleared to return and that the company will cover costs.
Karen Tyrone, the on-scene coordinator for the oil company, also revealed Thursday that the company will address longer-term costs "up to and including home purchase options."
But, she said, the oil giant is committed to completely cleaning and repairing the subdivision.
"We're confident we can restore that neighborhood to the beauty it was and hopefully leave it even better than before this incident," she said.
Tyrone said some residents were wanting to return to homes, but many were content to stay away, at least for the time-being.
"We have not had a strong interest to get back into homes," she said.
Brescia said the "main area of concern" is cove adjacent to Lake Conway where oil did get into the water. That's where the majority of the remaining oil is now and it could take some time to get it cleaned, he said.
"It's a meticulous processs of getting in there with lots of pieces of equipment to remove any free product that's still out there," Brescia said. "It's going to take some time. It's going to be weeks — maybe even longer — before they get to a point where any type of site inspection by Unified Command can occur."
Ryan Benefield, deputy director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, said water samples show no "constituents of concern within the lake" and that samples from the cove have reduced as time has gone on.
Tyrone said significant progress has been made in the cove, but lots of work remains to be done.
"The devil's in the details," she said. "You go from a macro-level of cleanup to the micro to finding the pockets and removing the debris."
The pipeline ruptured March 29, spilling an estimated 5,000 barrels — or 210,000 gallons — of oil into the community.
