Officials with California State Parks and boaters alike are dealing with an unknown substance in an area of Folsom Lake over recent days. While boaters have been noticing residue from the unknown substance, state park officials are investigating what it is and where it came from as well as addressing its removal.
Boaters over the very busy Memorial Day weekend were noticing that the hull of their boats were covered with a black, greasy material when they pulled their vessels from the water at the main boat ramp at Folsom Lake Marina in Brown’s Ravine. The black substance was apparent as it speckled the surface of the various boats and required a bit of scrubbing to remove it.
It’s something boaters have noticed over the past week as activity has ramped up at the Marina. However, with the onslaught of boaters over the holiday weekend, the issue became more widespread with more boat owners noticing the issue. California State Park Rangers in the Folsom Lake State Recreation area are aware of the issue they have been investigating to determine the exact contents of the substance and its origin. On Tuesday afternoon, park officials were working to clean the area of the lake near the boat launch, where it appeared to be contained to.
California State Parks Ranger Barry Smith said they don’t feel the substance poses a serious health risk at this time. “I wouldn’t say that there is any risk out here being on the lake,” he said, citing again that the issue appears to be isolated to the area around the marina’s boat ramp, where people aren’t swimming. While officials continue to address the spill and investigate, they say it’s likely an amount of oil that leaked or spilled from a boat.
“It very well could have been that someone purged their bilge out here around the ramp area, we want to remind everyone out here to keep their boats clean and tidy as something like this could happen,” Smith added.
For those that are not familiar with boat terminology, the bilge of a boat is the lowest inner part, or bottom point, on a boat, and is designed to collect excess water. On vessels of virtually any size, a pump inside the bilge performs a very important function: to remove accumulated water by creating pressure or suction so that the water can be removed. If a bilge is ignored and becomes full on a vessel, it can overflow and leak into the engine compartment, mixing with oil water. The risk of overflowing bilge water is significantly greater for leisure boats, especially when they aren’t checked regularly.
Prior to the rising of the waters, Folsom Lake Marina had new asphalt installed on the boat ramp surface, which has recently broken apart that officials speculate could be related to the substance in the water as well.
Smith told the media that anyone that notices any issues in or around the lake are urged to report them by contact the offices of the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area at 916-988-0205. On Tuesday afternoon, the issue and the clean-up efforts did not affect the operations of the facilities boat ramp, however, many boaters have a little extra post-weekend boat cleaning to perform.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available as State Parks continues to investigate and address the issue.