littlefield building

Owners of a downtown office building began the cleanup process this week for an abandoned, submerged fuel oil tank that spilled its contents onto Sixth Street in January.

A permit granted by the city on Aug. 13 allowed the owners of the Littlefield Building, located on the corner of Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, to remove all traces of oil from inside the tank and surrounding soil beginning Monday.

The city of Austin uncovered the mystery owner of the tank that caused January's 10,000-gallon oil spill downtown.

The Littlefield Building on Sixth Street is the proprietor of the tank.

City of Austin spokesperson Lynne Lightsey said Austin Watershed Protection found documents at the Austin History Center and University libraries that said the building had requested the tank to be installed at a city council meeting in December of 1910.