Here are summaries of major oil spills on the Pacific Coast and the Strait of Juan de Fuca over the past 51 years:
Pacific Coast (March 1964)
A 200-foot barge grounded between Moclips and Pacific Beach and leaked about 1.2 million gallons of diesel and stove oil onto beaches from the Quinault Reservation south for 10 miles, killing untold numbers of seabirds and 32,000 pounds of razor clams.
The United Transportation Co. paid $8,000 in damages — about $61,000 in today’s dollars.
Shi Shi Beach (January 1972)
A World War II-vintage troop ship, USS General M.C. Meigs, drifted into rocks off the Makah Reservation, broke up and spilled an estimated 2.3 million gallons of heavy fuel oil over 10 months. Researchers documented a dramatic die-off in purple sea urchin populations, and petroleum residue showed up in crabs and other marine animals for a year. The wreck still can be seen in satellite pictures.
Port Angeles Harbor (December 1985)
The Arco Anchorage, loaded with Alaskan North Slope crude, ran aground in Port Angeles Harbor.
About 239,000 gallons leaked into the water before the crew transferred cargo to another tank on the ship.
Despite 4,500 feet of containment boom placed around the vessel, wind and tides carried the oil as far east as Dungeness Spit and nearly as far west as Neah Bay.
In a four-month cleanup, 2,400 volunteers helped to recover about half of the spilled oil and to clean oil from the fur and feathers of local wildlife.
The spill killed more than 4,000 seabirds and undetermined numbers of harbor seals, otters, shellfish and salmon. Fifteen million board feet of oiled logs were cleaned by dragging them through a car wash and spraying them with high-pressure fire hoses.
The state Department of Ecology fined Arco and the vessel pilot $30,000 each.
Ocean Shores (December 1988)
The barge Nestucca, en route to Cherry Point with 70,000 barrels of bunker fuel, collided with its tug. Some 231,000 gallons of oil leaked for 23 hours until the weather calmed enough for crews to patch the barge’s hull.
Beaches were fouled from Oregon to Vancouver Island, mostly near Ocean Shores, killing or injuring 56,000 seabirds.
Cleanup workers sent 585 tons of oiled waste to landfills and burned 45,000 cubic yards of oiled driftwood.
Cape Flattery (July 1991)
The Japanese-fish processing vessel Tenyo Maru and the Chinese freighter Tuo Hai collided about 25 miles northwest of Cape Flattery.
The Tenyo Maru sank within minutes and began leaking about 361,000 gallons of oil onto Shi Shi Beach, Cape Flattery and the area between Tatoosh Island and Rialto Beach.
Shorelines in the Makah Reservation and Olympic National Park were the hardest-hit.
After a month, a remote-controlled submersible pumped the remaining fuel from the vessel.
The oil killed or injured at least 4,300 seabirds and unknown otters and seals, and damaged kelp beds.
Several other vessels used the spill as an opportunity to dump waste oil illegally into the water.
Cleanup crews collected about 35,000 garbage bags of oily debris.
In 1994, the Tenyo Maru’s owner paid $9 million in penalties and cleanup fees.
________
Source: Sightline Institute. For full details, visit http://tinyurl.com/PDN-sightlinespills.
