According to Ecology, all toxins identified by Burlington Northern and Ecology show concentrations exceeding state levels. Long-term exposure to either diesel oil or its fumes have been determined to be cancerous, according to David Solet, the assistant chief of epidemiology, planning and environmental health for the King County Public Health department. It is easy to throw away oily clothes, but laundering an entire town is proving to be more difficult. Ecology estimated the total volume of spilled oil at approximately 160,000 gallons. Oil seeps into the soil and hitches a ride on the groundwater until reaching the riverbanks where it either congeals on rocks or enters the Skykomish River.
Tap water is saved from contamination, because it emanates from a source uphill of the town.
Fumes from the seeping oil make the riverbank smell like a gas station. The smell of diesel pulses as rainbow oil rings float to the surface and dissipate in the current. Moss and sand take on the sheen most often seen in parking lot puddles, and oil marks stain rocks in a straight line along the bank. Oil lubricates the underside of Skykomish as if the town was an iceberg, adrift on a toxic ocean. Skykomish, Wash. welcomes visitors to boarded up hotels and saloons, and a railroad's legacy of a slick undertow of oil.