NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Alan Guttman was enjoying a bike ride in the Old Wythe neighborhood of Hampton on a recent Saturday afternoon when he noticed a strange smell.
"The minute I got into this wide open water area where we are the smell was just so strong and just very noxious - no smell that I've smelt before," Guttman said.
He wasn't sure what it was or where exactly it was coming from.
"I said this doesn't smell right. I went home. I said better to be inside," Guttman said.
He began contacting different local, state, and federal agencies trying to get information, but didn't get confirmation about what happened until Sunday evening.
"There was nothing like that - not on Friday, not on Saturday, and not on Sunday until 6 o'clock and that's really my concern," Guttman said.
What he was smelling was the result of a jet fuel spill into the James River at HII's Newport News Shipbuilding facility.
It happened Friday, Feb. 13, at about 1 p.m., when fuel was being transferred to the future John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier, which is being built at Newport News Shipbuilding.
To figure out why neighbors like Guttman weren't notified sooner, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to review communications from Newport News City Manager Alan Archer.
At about 1 p.m. that Sunday, Archer wrote a text message saying he was just learning about the spill — two full days after it first happened. About 5 minutes later, he wrote:
"We are late to the table on messaging about this event. I am sorry that the shipyard did not contact the administration directly."
News 3 then asked HII why the public didn't find out sooner. A spokesperson responded, saying they did report the spill to the EPA on that Friday, and said:
"The initial visual estimation of fuel released into the river Friday was subsequently increased over the weekend based on pumping calculations to provide a maximum potential volume released to assist in remediation and cleanup efforts."
Estimates of the amount of fuel spilled initially ranged from just dozens of gallons to potentially more than 7,000 gallons. HII now estimates about 4,700 gallons actually leaked.
HII says the cleanup is now complete.
Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality reports one bird died as a result of the spill, but the Virginia Department of Health says there was no evidence of impacts to drinking water and there were no changes to shellfish growing area classifications.
Guttman says he just wishes neighbors like him had been told sooner.
"I'm sure they're going to do their best to make sure it doesn't happen again, but for me they need to do a better job on the communicating to residents," Guttman said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
