By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The amount of diesel oil spilled in Neva Strait after a tugboat ran aground Monday is still unknown, but the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation provided other details of the incident later in the day in its first situation report on the accident.
The 83-foot tug Western Mariner was southbound in Neva Strait, headed for Sitka and towing the container barge Chichagof Provider, when the tug’s steering temporarily failed and caused the 286-foot barge to collide with the tug. The Coast Guard and DEC put the time at around 3 a.m.
“The collision pushed the tug onto the beach resulting in the release of the diesel,” DEC said. The vessel has a maximum capacity of 50,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and 45,000 gallons were aboard. The port forward fuel tank, the known source of the discharge, had a maximum capacity of 3,000 gallons. The sheen from the spill was estimated Monday at 4 nautical miles.
The Coast Guard said Monday it received its first call from the Western Mariner at 5:28 a.m. that morning. Western Towboat Co., the owner of the tug, reported the spill to the National Response Center at 4:46 a.m. No one was injured in the accident.
DEC on-scene coordinator Rachael Krajewski said today that responders transferred fuel from the leaking tank, and plugged its fuel vents. The barge was towed into Sitka and the tug remained hard aground today at the accident site 17 miles northwest of Sitka.
The Sitka salvage company Hanson Maritime has been on scene since Monday morning, and Global Diving and Salvage of Seattle and oil pollution responders SEAPRO of Ketchikan also have been retained, the DEC said.
The agency said a salvage team arrived at 8 a.m. Monday, and fuel manifolds were closed to prevent the transfer of fuel between tanks. “Response crew on site have prioritized lightering the contents from the damaged and discharging port forward tank into an assisting tender vessel,” the DEC said. The agency said its continuing priority is to ensure no fuel is leaking from the vessel.
The majority owner of the tug is Alaska Marine Line’s service partner Western Towboat, said a company representative. After the Western Mariner grounded, another tugboat was sent to tow the barge the rest of the way to Sitka. Ryan Dixon of Lynden Transport said today the accident delayed freight deliveries to Sitka and Kake by a day.
Other response to the accident included placement of a containment boom around the grounded vessel. The oil spill response vessel Neka Bay from Juneau arrived this morning to help, and at press time today it was standing by in St. John Baptist Bay. “A vessel of opportunity in Sitka has been mobilized with 1,000 feet of boom, and an additional 9,000 feet of boom and three additional vessels of opportunity are on standby in Sitka,” the DEC said.
The Coast Guard buoy tender Hickory is to arrive Wednesday.
As “resources at risk or affected” by the spill, the DEC listed the herring that are aggregating for the annual spawn in Sitka Sound. Fish and Game reported today that biologists are not seeing herring spawning or schooling in Neva Strait.
“Marine mammal and avian predators are likely aggregating in the area to prey on herring,” the situation report said. “No impacts to marine mammals or wildlife have been reported, but no dedicated wildlife surveys have been conducted at this time.”
DEC said there have been no observations of “extremely oiled shorelines.”
Neva Strait is a known sea cucumber habitat and commercial harvesting ground and nearby beaches have been used historically as clam harvesting areas. The environmental agency also noted the salmon habitat in St. John Baptist Bay as well as the nursery area for juvenile sablefish.
Krajewski said she plans to issue another situation report on Wednesday.
