The cleanup continues at the Clark Sports Center after a malfunctioning valve caused a few hundred gallons of heating oil to leak last week.

Tom Lane, a spill investigator with the Department of Environmental Conservation office out of Stamford, said more than 100 gallons of spilled oil had been removed by Monday and that oil was still being siphoned out of a pit dug next to the facility’s underground tanks.

He said that while "a few hundred gallons" leaked from a pipe near the facility’s two 10,000 gallon oil tanks, not all of it went into the Susquehanna River and that the spill’s impact would be minimal.

"It’s really impossible to tell how much got into the river," he said. The flow of oil leaking from the heating system had been stopped by Wednesday night, he said.

Lane said it was hard to say how long the cleanup would take as contaminated dirt is still being removed and new tanks and pipes are being installed.

He also was unsure how much the cleanup and tank replacement would cost.

"It’s going to be a pretty good chunk of change," he said.

Brad Feik, director of the Clark Sports Center, said a temporary heating system has been installed and that the incident will not interrupt the Sports Center’s activities. The new tanks will have double walls and the pipes used will be state-of-the-art, he said.

"We’re putting in new tanks and new lines to avoid any future occurrences," Feik said.

Lane said double-wall systems have a secondary containment system, so that if there is a leak, it’s contained within the system and not released into the ground. They also include better leak alarm systems, so leaks are detected more efficiently.

He said the Sports Center will pay for the cleanup and tank replacement and that they’ve been very cooperative and proactive about resolving the problem.

"We’re just happy that the leak was discovered and that Mary Fines found the leak and reported it," Feik said.

Fines, of Cooperstown, said she first noted a rainbow sheen on the surface of the river while she was walking with her dog Monday, Nov. 6. She reported it to a crew working on the Susquehanna Avenue bridge after suspecting it was from them.

When she found out it wasn’t, she filed a report with the Department of Environmental Conservation Tuesday. When it seemed like nothing was being done by Wednesday morning,

Fines said she then called the Cooperstown Police Department and other village officials in hopes of getting something done.

By that time, DEC officials were on the scene assessing the situation. By noon Wednesday, a team from OP-TECH Environmental Services out of Albany had arrived and was using absorbent booms to soak up the spilled No. 2 heating oil.

Lane said the waste and contaminated soil generated by the spill would be incinerated or taken to landfills designed to contain material of that nature.