Photo of the Pepacton Reservoir, taken near the East Delaware Tunnel on Tuesday, May 15. The photo shows yellow rubber booms surrounding the area of a small oil spill.

The source of a mysterious oil spill discovered on New York City's Pepacton Reservoir on April 29 has finally been found, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced on Friday. The source is still buried in the sediment, and has been covered to prevent further leakage while the agency investigates.

Earlier this week, divers were deployed on the reservoir to search the bottom for the source of the spill. A press release issued by the DEP today stated that the divers found a four-inch pipe protruding from the bottom of the reservoir, leaking a substance believed to be diesel fuel. The pipe is capped, but has several small holes that are leaking fuel. A second point on the bottom of the reservoir, about 12 inches away from the pipe, is also showing signs of leakage.

Jean Craighead George, a Newbery Medal-winning children's book author who made the Catskills wilderness famous in her 1959 book "My Side of the Mountain," died Tuesday at the age of 92.

In a recent obituary, New York Times writer Margalit Fox writes that the natural world was as much a part of George's everyday life as it was of her books:

In 1944 she married John George, an ornithologist, and settled into a domestic routine that included writing, motherhood and wildlife management. Over time, as she recounted in her memoir for children, “The Tarantula in My Purse” (1996), the household grew to include 173 pets, not counting cats and dogs.

Among them were a crow that gathered coins and deposited them in the rainspout of the local bank and an owl that adored taking showers in the family tub. (Overnight guests at the George home were met with a cautionary sign: “Please remove owl after showering.”)

Photo of a small tugboat and an oil spill surrounded by yellow booms on the Pepacton Reservoir. Taken on Tuesday, May 15 from Route 30, near the pump station for the East Delaware Tunnel. Photos by Lissa Harris.

The source of a small oil spill in New York City's Pepacton Reservoir, which was discovered on April 29, had still not been found over two weeks later.

From a photo taken of the spill yesterday, the affected area looks somewhat larger than the New York City Department of Environmental Protection's initial estimate of about 100 square feet.

DEP spokesman Chris Gilbride told the Watershed Post that divers were in the reservoir on Tuesday, May 15 searching for the source of the spill.

Gilbride said that no water was currently being drawn from the Pepacton into the city's drinking water.

"We're not currently drawing water from that reservoir, not because of the oil spill, just because of natural operations," he said.