Update: Hundreds of gallons of diesel removed from Baltimore Harbor. Read more.

Red water glistened around docks and along the edges of Harbor East as over 100 personnel worked through the night to clean up a diesel fuel spill that officials said turned out to be larger than initially thought.

During a press conference Thursday morning, Gov. Wes Moore said reports of the spill began trickling in Wednesday morning. The spill, which state officials initially described as being approximately 100 gallons, was traced to a Johns Hopkins Hospital facility at 1780 E. Fayette St., more than a mile away. Early Thursday, officials said in a press release that the spill was approximately 2,000 gallons.

“This is a challenging assignment, but this is also a team that, in challenging assignments and challenging times, does not flinch,” Moore said. “We know how to move fast.”

A “robust and collective effort” mobilized 10 different city and state agencies and the U.S. Coast Guard to respond to the spill, Moore said.

The Coast Guard is overseeing the cleanup effort and working with a contractor to use absorbent materials and skimmers to direct the fuel into a 4,000-gallon pump truck. Moore said crews have deployed 600 feet of harbor boom. Cleanup efforts are expected to continue through the day on Thursday.

As a result of the cleanup, there will be multiple traffic closures in the Harbor East area from Central Avenue to Fleet Street, Mayor Brandon Scott said at the press conference. There will also be “additional traffic disruption” through East Baltimore near the Johns Hopkins facility, he said.

Hopkins spokespeople did not respond to questions about the spill Thursday.

According to a statement from the hospital system the night before, the fuel spilled from two overfilled diesel tanks during a routine delivery by a third-party company. The fuel there is used to power backup generators for Hopkins patient care facilities.

The hospital system immediately notified regulators at the Maryland Department of the Environment, the statement said, and was working with government officials in their response efforts.

Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said Thursday morning that workers have located where they believe the leak occurred and are flushing the storm drain system.

“What’s important is we need to push the product down, push it down to the harbor, where we have skimmers, where we have capability to capture and retain product,” he said.

The spill has not impacted drinking water or air quality at this time, officials said, though there is a noticeable odor. The red color comes from a dye in the diesel.

Alice Volpita, Baltimore Harbor waterkeeper for the nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore, woke up to the news that the spill was much larger than first reported.

Blue Water is sending out a boat to investigate the spill site on Thursday and to monitor impacts on wildlife, including birds and fish.

The challenge with fuel is its ability to spread, covering a wide area in a thin sheen, Volpitta said. As a result, spills need to be dealt with quickly, and Volpitta said she’s grateful Hopkins officials reported the issue when they did. The Blue Water team also plans to look for any fuel that might have breached the containment area.

Baltimore is unfortunately used to dealing with the impacts of sewage overflows in its waters, but Volpitta said she’s less certain about the consequences of this diesel incident.

“Any amount of diesel flowing into our waters is too much,” she said.

Waterfront Partnership, which operates Baltimore’s family of trash wheels, said it was frustrated by the spill but thanked city and state officials for their fast action.

The group will continue to monitor the situation closely and assess any “potential impacts on water recreation events scheduled for later this month, including the Baltimore Floatilla and Harbor Splash,” said Adam Lindquist, vice president of Waterfront Partnership.

Spill prompts emergency response

The Baltimore City Fire Department responded to a Harbor East marina for a report of a fuel spill before 1 p.m., according to the press release. By 2 p.m., state and city officials, along with the U.S. Coast Guard, coordinated on responding to and containing the spill.

At 6:48 p.m., Hopkins “updated their report to reflect a 2,000 gallon uncontained spill,” according to the timeline from the officials.

The contaminated water is concentrated near the South Central Avenue Bridge in Harbor East, near Whole Foods, Harbor East Marina and the Crossroads School. Officials said they were able to contain the spill to where it is now, and the incident footprint is approximately 100 yards wide by about 250 yards long.

Photos from the scene, shared Wednesday afternoon by the Maryland Department of the Environment, show the fuel on the surface of the water, seeping between docks, and a red boom in place to prevent further spreading.

Officials with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources aided in the rescue of more than two dozen geese and other birds from the spill area, working overnight to remove oiled animals from the water.

Most of the birds in the area were not harmed by the spill, according to a Department of Natural Resources update on social media. These geese are now in the care of Tri-State Bird Rescue, a Delaware-based group focused on returning injured birds to the wild.

Turtles are also frequent visitors to a small floating habitat in the Lancaster Street Canal, on the opposite side of the bridge from the marina. Known as “turtle island,” the floating habitat is managed by the nonprofit Living Classrooms, the National Aquarium and Waterfront Partnership.

State officials were working to catch and clean turtles rescued from the water, James Piper Bond, CEO of Living Classrooms, said Thursday afternoon.

“Our kids all love the turtles,” Bond said, “and we’re hoping they’re all gonna be OK.”