The one mitigating factor in this case is that rather than gasoline or lighter oils, which would have instantly started to mix and volatilize in the water, the truck's cargo was a heavy-grade fuel oil, so thick it has to be heated before it can be pumped. This, combined with winter temperatures and low flows in the river, has kept the oil from dispersing immediately, helping clean-up crews, which were at work almost immediately, placing booms and nets across the river to trap blobs of oil floating downstream.

The latest newspaper accounts I've seen report, on the positive side, that only a dozen or so dead fish have been found so far, along with a few oil-covered birds and beavers. Unfortunately, those same reports stated that oil, despite the clean-up efforts, had traveled quickly downstream, at least to the Nevada border, which is seven miles from the site of the accident. Much of the river in this area is difficult to access, with steep, brush-choked banks, so not only will clean-up be difficult, but true fish and wildlife losses may be hard to determine. Furthermore, right after I read that the crews were able to work full force due to relatively mild, dry weather, but would be severely hampered by any winter storms, the region was walloped by a large snowstorm. How ironic, that the snow needed for a healthy watershed in the Sierra Nevada could actually lead to further environmental damage at one of the west's finest trout streams.

The California stretch of the East Walker is closed to fishing in winter, but the Rosachi Ranch portion in Nevada is open all year, with catch-and-release, single, barbless hook restrictions. If any Fishsniffer readers have visited this section since the spill, please email me. I'd like to hear the report on visible oil, dead fish and animals, and God willing, good fishing.