Large spill threatens island beaches, wildlife

By Ian Ith and Craig Welch
Seattle Times staff reporters

STEVE RINGMAN / THE SEATTLE TIMES The spilled oil drifts off Vashon Island's Neill Point yesterday, moving northward into Quartermaster Harbor.

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"We have a major oil spill on our hands," said Larry Altose, spokesman for the state Department of Ecology. "This is a very large, very complex spill."

Officials didn't know where it came from, who was responsible or exactly how much oil had been spilled. They estimated it at roughly 1,000 gallons.

Ten boats from three cleanup companies worked through the afternoon, dragging floating booms through Dalco Passage, just south of the islands, to try to capture several square miles of oil before an early-evening high tide and three-knot winds pushed it to land.

Overnight, crews using emergency lights were expected to lay booms around the southern tip of Vashon and Gig Harbor to try to keep oil out of the most sensitive areas.

Investigators were comparing spill samples with fuels from marine vessels, refineries and oil-storage facilities in and around the Northwest's largest industrial port.

Even though the spill was reported in the wee hours yesterday, it took most of the day before the state even had an idea what type of petroleum product had been spilled.

"Sometimes it seemed like diesel, other times like bilge oil," Altose said. It appears to be industrial oil, a heavy grade that can coat beaches, form tar balls and does not readily evaporate.

Environmental Protection Agency officials said it probably came from a ship. Samples of the oil will be used to obtain a chemical signature, which then can be used to locate a suspect vessel.

Coast Guard Lt. Commander Pat Smith, the executive officer overseeing the agency's vessel-traffic monitoring system in Puget Sound, said a list of ships operating in the area has been created.

From aerial reconnaissance flights, state officials and the Coast Guard could see that the spill had spread five miles along both sides of the islands, covering an area as large as — if not larger than — last winter's 4,800-gallon spill near Richmond Beach in North King County.

Although much of it had yet to reach shore, some had and was leaving its mark.

FACTS Oil spills Most spills in Puget Sound range in size from a few ounces to a few gallons. The most common release of oil occurs during fuel-transfer processes, most commonly associated with smaller vessels releasing a maximum of several hundred gallons of marine diesel fuel. Some of the larger spills include: • About 4,800 gallons of heavy marine oil spilled late last year as it was being pumped into a barge at the Chevron/Texaco loading terminal at Point Wells, near Richmond Beach. • 23,000 gallons of diesel spilled by a barge in transit near Padillo Bay in 1995. • 100,000 gallons of petroleum products spilled by the fishing vessel Tenyo Maru 22 miles off Cape Flattery in 1991. • 227,000 gallons of Bunker C spilled by the barge Nestucca off Grays Harbor in 1988. • 239,000 gallons of crude oil spilled by tank ship Arco Anchorage while at anchor in Port Angeles in 1985. • 67,000 gallons of heavy cycle gas oil spilled by the barge MCN 5 when it sunk near Fidalgo Head in 1985. Source: U.S. Coast Guard

Crews in work boats raced to soiled beaches to mop up or rake the oily film from the sand before the tide began dragging toxic residue out with the surf.

A smear of oil coated a pebbly beach for at least 100 yards in each direction from the Tahlequah ferry dock on the southern tip of Vashon Island, where ferries from Point Defiance in Tacoma arrive at the island.

From Northilla, a tiny enclave of homes perched above the southeast corner of Maury Island, a huge patch of oil could be seen spreading across the inlet of Quartermaster Harbor, where it had moved up into the Dockton area.

It will be difficult for the tides to flush the oil out of the bulb-shaped, ecologically sensitive harbor, said Kathy Fletcher, executive director of the environmental group People for Puget Sound.

"This is about the worst thing that could happen in that area," she said. "It's very unfortunate. It sickens me."

Fortunately, she said, many of the birds that winter on the islands have not arrived yet, but if the oil seeps into the beach, "it ends up becoming an ongoing source of contamination."

Down the hill, a film the color and consistency of used motor oil covered a yard-wide swath of Maury Island's Manzanita Beach for a mile-long stretch.

Rescue workers confirmed only two cases of shore birds being slathered in oil, but the spill had spread across such a vast area, Altose said, that "there will probably be more."

Coast Guard spokesman Pfc. Adam Eggers said, "We're trying to get the stuff out of the water as quickly as we can, but we're getting calls from Colvos Passage (along the west side of Vashon) to Quartermaster Harbor."

	DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES A boom is stretched across the water off Vashon Island yesterday as crews try to contain the oil spill.

The spill was first noticed by Bill Sibbett, who pilots the tugboat Yeomalt out of Bainbridge Island, about 1 a.m. yesterday. He was pulling a barge toward Tacoma off the southern end of Vashon when he and his crew started smelling diesel.

Their boat soon hit a "big black pool of oil, solid black. It was spread as far as we could see on both sides."

It took two miles to steer completely out of it, he said, and he feared he may have cut through only a small corner of it.

"It was really, really heavy oil. I could smell it a mile before we got to it."

When he and his crew shined their spotlights, they could see the oil slick was about 200 yards off the Point Defiance dock.

Sibbett immediately reported the spill, but state officials said darkness and a heavy, early-morning fog slowed their response.

	DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES A worker helping to clean up the large oil spill in south Puget Sound inspects Vashon Island's stained shoreline yesterday.

"It's so difficult to see on the water, there's very little that can be done at night," Altose said. "And this morning we had only a limited ability to put vessels to work on the water."

Still, some residents were angered by the response time.

Vicki Ward, who lives above Gold Beach on Maury Island, watched as the oil slick moved toward Quartermaster Harbor — a proposed nature reserve that's home to eelgrass beds, which provide a nursery of sorts for salmon and herring.

"This is a last refuge, and to see oil everywhere is just devastating," she said. "This is an ecological tragedy."

She said she grew frustrated by 1 p.m. when she still couldn't see any boats trying to contain the slick.

Fog "doesn't stop the ferries," she said. "I'm not understanding why they didn't respond earlier. My question is, 'Where are they?' "

Altose said such cleanup work is just too dangerous to undertake when visibility is bad.

"This is a very serious environmental insult, but it would be horrible to add tragedy to an environmental problem," he said.

Larry Jensen, a Vashon resident and a Seattle firefighter, went down to the beach to check out the scene and look for a place to put in his kayak. Jensen said he'd been boating early yesterday and the fog was so thick he couldn't see more than 100 feet.

FACTS Warning Oil is hazardous, material and members of the public should stay away from any that has washed ashore. Response crews are trained and certified to work with hazardous materials. Volunteers are appreciated, but are not needed at this time. Wildlife The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has trained wildlife specialists combing the beaches looking for birds or other animals harmed by the oil spill. To report oiled or injured animals, call 800-22-BIRDS.

"You can't really blame the [government] for not doing anything earlier, because they couldn't see it," Jensen said.

Jensen kneeled down and wiped some of the slime with his fingers. "You can see this sheen on the water, and you can sure smell it," he said. "It sure isn't an Exxon Valdez spill. But it sure isn't going to do the birds any good."

By late afternoon, a crew from Global Diving and Salvage had converged on Manzanita Beach and began cleaning up. A pair of boats — dwarfed by the size of the oil patch — could be seen zigzagging, each pulling a floating boom behind to corral the oil on the surface.

Another dozen men and women in hardhats, orange life vests and yellow rubber overalls fanned out across Manzanita Beach, unrolling long strings of what look like cheerleader pom-poms meant to soak up the oil as it laps the shore.

Today, aerial reconnaissance flights will evaluate the spill's movement and crews will be back at work.

Staff reporter Steve Miletich contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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