More than 100 personnel worked to clean up Baltimore Harbor after 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the harbor Wednesday following what officials said was an accidental overfill of diesel tanks that supply power for backup generators at Johns Hopkins facilities in East Baltimore.

The water is red because there is dye in the fuel, according to a post on X from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), and Baltimore officials said there is no impact to the area’s drinking water.

The incident happened near the Fells Point area of Baltimore around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, when there were “first accounts of a leakage,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said Thursday morning at a news conference. Johns Hopkins Hospital officials reported around 11:30 a.m. that there was a “contained” spill of 200 gallons of diesel at their facility in East Baltimore, according to a post on X from Moore. But just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, Hopkins reported that the spill involved 2,000 gallons and was “uncontained,” according to a statement from Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D).

Kim Hoppe, vice president of public relations for Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in a statement that the incident happened when two diesel tanks that supply power for backup generators for its patient care facilities in East Baltimore were “accidentally overfilled causing overflow.” The tanks were being filled as part of a “routine fuel delivery by a third-party vendor,” the official said, and Hopkins said it “immediately notified” the MDE “of the overflow while continuing to investigate.”

Baltimore officials said the diesel fuel traveled through the stormwater system and into a marina located in the Harbor East section of the Inner Harbor. Officials said crews were checking manhole covers to see the location of the diesel fuel spill in the stormwater system and were flushing it to push it to the containment area that’s roughly 100 by 250 yards in the marina at South Central Avenue Bridge in Harbor East.

At the Thursday morning news conference, Moore said more than 100 personnel from 10 city and state agencies had been deployed to the scene and worked overnight to “make sure we had the situation controlled and contained.”

Scott said the situation was an “all-hands-on-deck response,” and while area residents may still “smell gas and we can see oil on the water,” there’s no impact to the drinking water. “We’re doing everything we can to mitigate any environmental impacts of the spill.”

Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace said the situation “could have been far, far worse than it was,” but that crews and equipment were deployed quickly. He said the diesel fuel that spilled was a “heating oil product” and that as of Thursday morning, crews had begun an “operation where we’re opening up fire hydrants and starting to flush the storm drain system.”

“We need to push the product down to the harbor where we have skimmers, where we have the capability to capture and retain the product,” Wallace said, adding that effort would continue throughout Thursday.

An official from the MDE said at the news conference that at least 12 geese were rescued from the area and taken to a wildlife rehabilitator. Moore said any fines or costs for the cleanup would be determined later and that the focus is on “making sure we get the water cleaned.”

Streets in the area were closed overnight and into Thursday morning, and no time frame was given as to when they would reopen as crews from the MDE and the U.S. Coast Guard worked to try to contain the spill. Drivers are advised to avoid the area. Officials said cleanup crews are using “oil absorbent materials and skimmers feeding into a 4,000-gallon pump truck.”

In a statement, Moore and Scott said the Coast Guard is “actively investigating the scene.”

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff contributed to this report.