PORT ANGELES — Two local emergency managers are upset over cleanup efforts after nearly 500 gallons of fuel oil spilled into Port Angeles Harbor early Sunday morning.
The spill happened while the Panama-flagged liquid propane gas tanker Gaz Diamond was being refueled.
Clallam County Emergency Services Director Joe Ciarlo and Fire Department Chief Dan McKeen expressed their dissatisfaction with cleanup efforts during Monday’s county commissioners work session.
Ciarlo and McKeen criticized Washington State Maritime Cooperative — which provides spill contingency plan coverage to ship operators — for not using locally available resources to more rapidly contain the spill.
They told commissioners some of the oil had floated outside Port Angeles Harbor.
Boats used to skim oil off water were being used Monday morning off the mouth of Morse Creek.
“It was amazing to see local resources sit idle and the reluctance to bring in those resources,” McKeen said. “The majority of the spill could have been contained by using resources in the community.”
Unfortunate spread
John Felton, the Cooperative’s response manager, said Tuesday, “It was unfortunate that some of (the oil) was contained after it impacted the land.
“When a spill occurs, it doesn’t stay where you want it to, due to the wind and waves.”
The cooperative’s primary response contractor, Foss Environmental, responded Sunday with equipment based in Port Angeles, Seiku and along Puget Sound.
Additional personnel were added to beach clean-up crews Monday and Tuesday.
A second contractor, Longview-based Cowlitz Clean Sweep, was brought in Tuesday to assist with removal of oil from the shore inside Ediz Hook.
But other response agencies with equipment stored in Port Angeles, like Clean Sound Cooperative of Everett, were not called.
After a flight over the spill area Tuesday morning, Felton said the oil that had drifted was largely cleaned up, and none of it had approached Dungeness Spit, home to a national wildlife refuge.
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