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The photo to the left shows the "Esperanza" the day
after it hit the rock. Boom was set the night before and then
repositioned as a down-current collection
V the following morning.
At
this point, work to remove fuel from the vessel is underway.
photo by Ross Lockwood
Like many IOSA responses, our 100th
containment/cleanup response depended on a collection of
contributions from many people who have helped IOSA…..over many
years.....which came together in one short period of time………...
►Aug. 29, 2007 - afternoon: the seiner
Esperanza
hits a large rock offshore from Eagle Point on the
southwest side of San Juan Island and capsizes; the
crew is safe, has been picked up by nearby seiners;
the IOSA pager goes off.
►5:30 pm: USCG activates IOSA to contain the
vessel and remove pollutants.
►6:30 pm: IOSA’s 23’ landing craft is underway
from Friday Harbor with 2 responders and the Sea Goose,
IOSA's 45’pontoon vessel, is underway from Shoal Bay with me
and 2 other responders.
During past classes and drills, these responders completed the
safety training that is required by state
and federal agencies before working in an oil spill environment, so
they were ready to go. One responder has picked up a boom trailer in
Friday Harbor and tows
it to False Bay, where a 2nd responder meets him.
They prepare to offload 700’ of boom and feed it down the hill to be
handed off to our response vessel.
►7:30 pm: the 23’ vessel stays with the wreck and our 45’ vessel
goes to nearby False Bay, where there
are 3 potential launch points for the boom. All these points had
been located, with permission and directions
acquired from property owners, many years ago, and use of these
points was practiced during on-site drills.
Past experience saves us a lot of time: As we approach the 1st
access point, we find that the tide is too low, so the water is too
shallow to reach shore, and the trailer needs to be moved to a more
obscure access point closer to the bay’s entrance. I am onboard the
vessel, so not much help to the shore crew, but I know that one of
our shore responders has firsthand experience with this access point
from a drill in the 90’s and the transition to the 2nd access site
will be smooth and safe. Shore responders meet up with the helpful
manager at Mar Vista; one of our shore responders takes a few extra
minutes to walk the route to the access point, making sure the trail
is safe before driving in with the boom trailer (another example of
responders’ natural safety consciousness, as well as training, in
action).
► We watch the boom being carefully pulled down the hill, over and
around rocks and logs, with help from spotlights, and ultimately the
line at the end of the boom is tossed out to us. Experience gained
during the recent False Bay drill, 3 months earlier and also during
a low tide, helps reinforce our crew’s ability to maneuver around
‘areas to be avoided’ in this bay. The shore crew tosses the line
out to us, and as they feed the rest of the boom down to the water,
we tow the boom from the shore and then to open water for the quick
trip……….
► back to the wreck. On the surface, the water is calm and the full
moon is rising. We point our spotlight down and look below the
surface at the huge rock that the vessel is grounded on. We also see
the 10’ long green blades that are growing around the rock pulled
horizontal by the strong current below and then bending in different
directions in response to shifting eddies swirling around the rock
(we later learn these eddies are fairly common at this spot.)
►After the safety assessment, we begin setting 700’ of boom to
contain any petroleum or other
hazardous materials released from the vessel. The many times we’ve
practiced setting containment boom in a diamond configuration,
during spills and drills, helps us to cope with setting the boom in
this more
challenging location where the tide intensity and direction changes
frequently. I am glad to be in the
company of our very competent vessel operators. We first set the
lead anchor, following standard
procedure for a containment diamond, and in 15 minutes the current
direction has changed, so the lead
anchor has become the side anchor.
►In the time it takes to set all the anchors for a containment
diamond, the tide has switched 180 degrees, so we continue readjusting the boom. One of our
responders describes our work as a constant dance between the tide
and boom on one side and the boats towing the anchors on the other
side.
Ultimately our patient and steady crew sets the containment boom in
a functional diamond-shaped
configuration around the vessel. Before we head back to shore, we
spread oil-absorbent pads inside the boom.
►Over the next two days, we remove oily sorbent pads, some floating
garbage and containers of
petroleum products, and 170 gallons of diesel contained in
the Esperanza’s tanks is pumped by an experienced
diving contractor who we often work with during spills. With the
assistance of our crews, the fuel is stored in drums onboard and
then unloaded by a shore crew at Jackson Beach and taken to an
interim storage site until the slightly-contaminated fuel can be
picked up for recycling by a mainland contractor.
►We are very glad to have removed this petroleum within the first 2
days. With each day that the
vessel is in the water on the exposed west side of San Juan Island,
its condition deteriorates. Ultimately the vessel breaks up. Several
days after IOSA removes the fuel, the owner’s initial plans to raise
the Esperanza are unsuccessful because the vessel’s weight was
greater than anticipated and soon after that, the window of
opportunity for raising it has passed.
►170 gallons can be a lot of fuel in the water in a sensitive area.
One of the most memorable spills in the past 20 years
involved only 30 gallons of diesel and green paint thinner that fell
off a boat at a dock near shore. The spill was witnessed
and we were contacted immediately, so 2 hours from the time
it spilled, the cleanup was completed. The next morning I went back
to check for more fuel that might have been submerged and washed in
on the next tide. There wasn’t any fuel, but there were over 200
dead juvenile marine invertebrates that I found washed onto the
shore...including crabs, shrimp, marine worms,
limpets and others. In less than 2 hours, they had come into contact
with the spilled toxins. More of them may have sunk to the bottom or
been eaten by predators.
So... on the bad side, we know that even “small spills” can be
destructive. On the good side, we prevented these pollutants from
staying in the water longer and causing even more damage.
Many thanks
To all of our past and present IOSA responders,
To community members who give their time and energy to work on
special and ongoing projects ,
To members who donate funds for equipment and training,
To residents who provide access to shoreline, launch and view points
The photo to the left
shows the "Esperanza", the response
vessel and containment boom. This incident occurred only
a few hundred yards offshore near Eagle Point, at the far
northwest edge of South Beach, a pristine and beautiful
beach that is part of the San Juan Island National Historical
Park. The Olympic mountains rise in the distance.
photo by Ross Lockwood
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