Large oil spill in the Puget Sound

bohemianfey · Post by **bohemianfey** » 2004-10-16 02:11am

I heard this on the news a second ago... Here's the article...

VASHON ISLAND - An oil spill stained a stretch of Tacoma's Commencement Bay and spread to beaches on nearby Vashon and Maury islands on Thursday.

State Department of Ecology investigators said the spill involved about 1,000 gallons. They did not immediately know the source or type of oil that spilled or how far it had spread.

Spill responders from the department and the U.S. Coast Guard were sent to Dalco Passage, between the south end of Vashon Island and Tacoma's Point Defiance, after someone on a tug boat reported thick black oil in the water, Ecology spokeswoman Mary Ellen Voss said.

The initial report, phoned in around 1 a.m., indicated the spill was about an acre in size, but television news footage shot from a helicopter at midday showed an oily sheen spreading over a much larger area.

"We're calling it the 'Dalco Passage Mystery Spill' because we don't know how big it is, where it came from or where it's headed," Voss said. Officials added the ship involved might not know it has lost the oil.

Ecology officials said it took several hours for thick morning fog to clear enough for spill responders to get out on the water and into the air to investigate.

Right now, clean up is being focused on the outer harbor of Quartermaster Bay at the south end of Vashon and Maury islands, as well as the stretch of water between the two. They are trying to keep the stuff out of the more sensitive inner harbor.

"This is really bad. And unfortunately because of the fog and slow reaction, a lot of the oil has already hit the beaches on Vashon and Maury islands," Kathy Fletcher, executive director of the community environmental group People for Puget Sound, said early Thursday afternoon.

"Apparently, it's not big, black globules, but people have observed birds in the oil," Fletcher said.

Mary Nicholson, 47, lives two doors down from the ferry dock on Vashon Island and said she awoke to the smell of oil Thursday.

She said she was careful to keep her dog, Chelsea, out of the water during a midmorning beach walk, and at one point found a rock coated in thick, dark goo.

"I picked up this rock and this globby stuff was dropping off of it in clumps," Nicholson said. "It was really bad."

Along a beach on southern Vashon Island, Altose said crews raked oiled sand and small stones above the tideline so they wouldn't be washed out by high tide.

Another Ecology Department spokesperson says the area where the oil was coming ashore on Vashon is a significant herring ground, as well as a location full of shellfish, crabs, marine mammals and migrating birds.

They're ask that people stay away from the oil so they don't expose themselves to the fumes and so they don't track the oil around.

Cleanup operations began with boats plying the spill area to skim oil from the surface, Ecology spokesman Larry Altose said.

The Coast Guard said two contractors hired to handle the cleanup would also be using protective booms in some areas.

In the meantime, officials will "fingerprint" the oil to get its composition, which can help identify the source.

They were going to make an aquatic reserve in the area because of the uncontaminated quality of the ecosystems. Guess that's out.

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-10-16 02:28am

I've got a feeling that sooner or later, someone's going to scream the words (though not necessarily in this order) Corporate, right-wing conspiracy.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-10-16 02:41am

Yes, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy comes for your SOULS!

Seriously, this is disgusting. How in the hell could a tanker spill that much oil and have nobody notice?

bohemianfey · Post by **bohemianfey** » 2004-10-16 02:46am

Rogue 9 wrote:Yes, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy comes for your SOULS!

Seriously, this is disgusting. How in the hell could a tanker spill that much oil and have nobody notice?

My thoughts exactly. It fucking horrible.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2004-10-16 03:31am

I'm sorry, but a thousand gallons is just about the smallest oil spill I've ever heard of.

bohemianfey · Post by **bohemianfey** » 2004-10-16 03:34am

CaptainChewbacca wrote:I'm sorry, but a thousand gallons is just about the smallest oil spill I've ever heard of.

It's in a really small, contained ecosystem. The whole chain there is fucked.

bohemianfey · Post by **bohemianfey** » 2004-10-16 03:39am

bohemianfey wrote:
CaptainChewbacca wrote:I'm sorry, but a thousand gallons is just about the smallest oil spill I've ever heard of.
It's in a really small, contained ecosystem. The whole chain there is fucked.

Hmm... no edit button. Furthermore, 1 gallon of oil pollutes 1 MILLION gallons of H2O, in a small ecosystem that's devestation. They ruined one of the last relatively untouched habitates of this kind.

Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-10-16 04:39am

bohemianfey wrote:Hmm... no edit button. Furthermore, 1 gallon of oil pollutes 1 MILLION gallons of H2O, in a small ecosystem that's devestation. They ruined one of the last relatively untouched habitates of this kind.

Could you please post a source for that ratio?

bohemianfey · Post by **bohemianfey** » 2004-10-16 04:48am

Petrosjko wrote:
bohemianfey wrote:Hmm... no edit button. Furthermore, 1 gallon of oil pollutes 1 MILLION gallons of H2O, in a small ecosystem that's devestation. They ruined one of the last relatively untouched habitates of this kind.
Could you please post a source for that ratio?

Tahdah
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Petrosjko · Post by **Petrosjko** » 2004-10-16 06:09pm

Thank you.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-10-16 06:43pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:I'm sorry, but a thousand gallons is just about the smallest oil spill I've ever heard of.

Large ships are known to dump more then that into the ocean every time they flush out their bilge water.

LapsedPacifist · Post by **LapsedPacifist** » 2004-10-16 07:21pm

Its not untouched. Its puget sound. If it can recover from Seattle(and there's great diving in downtown Seattle) it can recover from this.

LP