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Tipped off by locals, state spill responders Thursday traced a sheen on Twin Lakes upstream to a leak from a home heating oil underground tank in the Mountainside Estates subdivision.

Thursday, rainbows were still visible on the south lake and in a stream running through a culvert into it. Some oil was blocked by a white boom placed around the culvert.

The leaky tank was contained Thursday, said Sarah Moore, environmental program specialist at the Department of Environmental Conservation.

She estimated the spill at between 100 and 150 gallons, though it was difficult to say for sure because most of the spill was underground. She said not all the tank's oil leaked, but what did come out was mostly still near the source.

"The majority of the cleanup effort is going to be focused on the soil directly around the tank," she said.

Moore did not release the name or address of the homeowner whose tank was leaking, according with DEC policy.

DEC was alerted soon enough that officials could do something about the spill, she said.

The first tip came in Wednesday afternoon from someone who was catching fish at Twin Lakes and saw a sheen in the water.

The second tip came in that evening from Juneau resident Larry West, who had been walking in the area with his son and another child.

West was proud to report that his son, Jayden West, 6, and Jayden's friend Arne Ellefson Carnes, 7, spotted the sheen on the water.

"My son was shouting, 'You've got to come look at this,'" West said.

"Gasoline in the water," said Jayden West, 6, when asked what he had seen. "There was a lot of it, and you could smell it pretty good."

The boys also noticed a female mallard acting strangely.

"We could get pretty close to her, and she didn't go away," Jayden said.

DEC officials traced the spill upstream from there until they found the leak.

• Contact Kate Golden at 523-2276 or kate.golden@juneauempire.com.