Oil Spills into S.F. Bay South of Bay Bridge
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO --October 31, 2009
Chronicle staff writers Heather Knight, Marisa Lagos, John Coté and Jaxon Van Derbeken contributed to this report.
The severity of the second toxic fuel spill to hit San Francisco
Bay in two years remained unknown Friday, but as a large plume of oil
headed for shore, questions were being asked about the speed of the
response.
The 6:48 a.m. spill occurred 2 1/2 miles south of the Bay Bridge as
bunker fuel was being pumped into the Panamanian tanker Dubai Star,
sending emergency crews scrambling to contain an oil slick that was at
least 3 miles long by Friday evening - and spreading.
Several observers said there was a long gap between the time the
spill was first reported and the time booms were placed around the ship.
"Four hours after reports of bunker oil spilling into the bay
(Friday) morning, boom equipment had not yet been deployed," said
Jackie Dragon, the marine sanctuaries program director for nonprofit
group Pacific Environment. "Why is this so?"
Coast Guard officials said the ship's officers and emergency response crews acted as quickly as they could.
Amount spilled uncertain
Investigators said they will not know how much oil was spilled until
soundings and measurements are taken of the ship's fuel tanks, but San
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and other officials estimated Friday that
a few thousand gallons leaked out.
Patrol boats, oil skimmers, utility boats and helicopters were
deployed and 11,000 feet of boom was laid, but the thick black oil was
still threatening to wash ashore. The Coast Guard warned that oil could
start washing up along north Alameda Island, Bay Farm Island in
Alameda, Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island overnight.
By Friday night, emergency workers had found no evidence of oil on
birds or other wildlife. But a helicopter hovering over the spill
earlier in the day reported seeing birds diving into the oil slick,
said Sylvia Wright, a spokeswoman for the Oiled Wildlife Care Network,
which has been mobilized to do reconnaissance and recovery of oiled
birds and other wildlife.
"We do expect that there will be birds that need to be rescued,"
Wright said. She said birds are nearly at the peak of their migration
south, meaning nearly 300,000 shorebirds are now in the Bay Area.
State and federal officials were trying to determine whether the
spill was caused by mechanical failure, human error or both. Coast
Guard officials said their initial assessment points to mechanical
failure.
The Dubai Star, a Panamanian-flagged vessel owned by South Harmony
Shipping Inc. of Panama, was carrying light jet fuel as cargo. It was
propulsion fuel, not the ship's cargo, that spilled during the fueling
operation.
After realizing what had happened, the ship's crew shut off the
source of the spill, officials said, but the oil had already spilled
onto the tanker's deck and poured into the water, where it was drifting
with the current.
There was no fog and very little wind to hamper the response, but the tides were about to shift.
When the spill occurred, the tide was coming into the bay, moving
south. The sheen traveled about 4 miles in that direction before it
began moving north and east.
The shifting current was why containment booms needed to be set out
earlier than mid-morning, several hours after the spill, said Marcie
Keever, the clean vessels campaign director for environmental advocacy
group Friends of the Earth.
"It's important to have this equipment on board, for the vessels to be sent out immediately," she said. "Every second counts."
Coast Guard Capt. Paul Gugg said the Dubai Star's crew quickly
notified authorities, including Marine Spill Response Corp., a
nonprofit oil spill removal organization. He said it took four hours to
completely encircle the ship with booms and contain the immediate spill
area, but a great deal of other work was also being done.
The Coast Guard sent out skimming vessels and five boats equipped
with booms to protect environmentally sensitive areas. Marine Spill
Response crews in three other vessels also laid thousands of feet of
booms in an attempt to limit the damage.
Two vessels from the National Response Corp., a company the Coast
Guard contracted to clean up the spill, were also working to contain
the oil.
"The notifications to the people who are conducting the cleanup
were made very quickly," said Senior Chief Petty Officer Keith Alholm.
"The tanker crew itself enacted their vessel response plan immediately,
notifying the Coast Guard. They did their best to secure the incident."
Newsom said during an early afternoon press conference that as much
as 40 percent of the oil had been contained. That information was not
confirmed.
Smaller spill
State, federal and local officials stressed that this spill was much
smaller and the response time was much faster than the Cosco Busan
spill almost two years ago.
The container ship Cosco Busan sideswiped the Bay Bridge on Nov. 7,
2007, spilling more than 50,000 gallons of the same kind of fuel oil
into the bay. That spill created an uproar after miscommunication and
foot-dragging allowed time for strong bay currents to disperse the
sludge and foul beaches throughout the Bay Area. Some 2,400 birds were
killed and the spill cost about $70 million to clean up.
"There are some similarities (to 2007) - the type of fuel is about the same," Gugg said, "but that's where they end."
Still, very little information was being released about the size and scope of the spill or the timing of the response.
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