LUCERNE-IN-MAINE – A crew spent most of Monday and Tuesday cleaning up nearly 300 gallons of heating oil that had leaked from a home on the eastern shore of Phillips Lake between Bangor and Ellsworth.

State Department of Environmental Protection officials, along with workers from Clean Harbors Inc., a Massachusetts-based environmental services company, worked Tuesday to divert the fuel from the waterfront.

Bob Whittier, a hazardous materials specialist with the DEP, however, said some oil already had gone into the lake.

“This is not a good area to have a spill, being so close to the water. There also are wells nearby,” Whittier said Tuesday outside 26 Rockridge Road, about a mile off Route 1A.

The home, a renovated trailer that sits about 30 feet from the water’s edge, is owned by Ken Lynch, chairman of the Board of Overseers for Lucerne-in-Maine Village Corp., a village within the town of Dedham.

Lynch was not home Tuesday and attempts to reach him by telephone were unsuccessful.

The strong smell of fuel hung in the air Tuesday afternoon while workers built two culverts to catch the remaining fuel, and then poured fresh stone into the culvert beds to prevent further groundwater contamination.

A slight sheen could be seen on water near the lake’s shore, where a large containment boom stretched about the length of a football field.

The spill likely started when a line from Lynch’s oil tank to his furnace started leaking, Whittier said.

“It could have been leaking all winter,” he pointed out.

A neighbor noticed the fuel on the surface of the lake on Sunday and called the DEP, Whittier said, adding that Lynch was unaware of the leak.

The spill was more or less contained by late Tuesday and the remaining oil would likely evaporate in the next few days, Whittier said.

He did not know of any long-term effects on the water.

“It was an isolated area, so in that sense, it was a quick clean-up,” Whittier said. “We will obviously treat and test the water as time progresses.”

Rick Leavitt, code enforcement officer for the town of Dedham, was at the spill site early Tuesday.

“The situation is being handled, but as far as notifying the public, there probably won’t be a general notification,” he said. “If the sheen on the water appears to be spreading, we’ll certainly notify residents.”

Leavitt also said he will work daily with the DEP and the homeowner to monitor the situation.