PORT TOWNSEND — Townsend Bay Marine will accept a Port of Port Townsend offer to train the company’s staff in oil spill response and recovery after the company’s latest luxury yacht spilled a small amount of hydraulic fluid into the Boat Haven marina at the start of sea trials in late September.
“I have taken [port Executive Director] Larry [Crockett] up on his offer when we go back in the water to tune up on our procedures,” David King, Townsend Bay Marine’s chief financial officer and founding partner, said Thursday.
Port officials and the company said that, on Sept. 26, between 2 and 5 gallons of hydraulic fluid was released into the marina from the Cielo Mare, a 127-foot sport fishing yacht said to be the third largest sport fishing vessel in the world.
King said a steering system hydraulic line break leaked hydraulic fluid, and the bilge pump “kicked on before anyone could stop it.
“We prevented a vast majority of it from escaping,” he said. “We were horrified. This was not what anybody wanted to happen.”
The fluid was released near the work float adjacent to the 300-ton heavy haul-out.
“We believe the discharge was less than 30 seconds,” King said.
The accidental spill prompted the Port of Port Townsend commissioners Wednesday to tighten the port’s regulation regarding prevention and response to oil spills in port waters, saying that port staff must be notified of such incidents immediately.
Notification
Port officials said the company should have told the National Spill Response Center and the Coast Guard as soon as the leak occurred.
King said the Coast Guard was called shortly after the spill, but that no Coast Guard representative responded to investigate.
Lt. Ronald Owens, a spokesman for Coast Guard Sector Seattle, said no written report or investigation was on record with the agency, “but that doesn’t mean that the owner or responsible party didn’t call.”
No National Spill Response Center report was filed, Owens said. Typically, the response center files a report with the state Department of Ecology, which monitors the port’s stormwater and pollution controls.
King said he believed that a call to the Coast Guard from the yacht’s skipper was enough but that he found, after reviewing his Port of Port Townsend lease, that the company was required to report the matter to the port within 24 hours.
Crockett, in an Oct. 9 letter to Paul Zeuche, Townsend Bay Marine chief executive officer said, “It appears that proper procedures of reporting and clean up were not followed.”
Citing the company’s lease and the port’s best management practices, Crockett offered staff as a resource to train Townsend Bay Marine staff in the property procedures.
Action taken
Faced with the accidental spill, Townsend Bay Marine personnel spread absorbent pads used to clean up such spills and used detergent that a port staff member later informed the company should not be used in oil spills because it coagulates petroleum products, causing it to sink to the bottom.
The staff member, Shannon Counsellor, reported that the detergent smelled like Simple Green.
Crockett also said that Counsellor picked up 33 absorbent pads that were blown by the wind into a corner of the ship dock and linear dock.
“These should have been properly disposed of as hazardous material by your staff,” Crockett wrote in his letter to Townsend Bay Marine.
The port has a Moderate Risk Waste Facility where hazardous materials should be disposed of, not in a Dumpster, Crockett said.
“We did try Simple Green to emulsify it in places, but it didn’t work,” King said.
First time in 10 years
“That’s our bad and we won’t do it again. This is the first time anything like this has happened, and we’ve worked in the boat yard for 10 years.”
King said that a lesson had been learned.
“We’ve got some compliance problems and we’re going to clean it up,” he said.
Crockett told the port commissioners about the incident Wednesday, leading to their unanimous action of port tenants to report spills immediately to the port.
“This is very, very serious business, these oil spills,” Commissioner Herb Beck said before voting with commissioners Dave Thompson and John Collins.
Both Crockett and port Deputy Director Jim Pivarnik said the port’s action was not meant to be contentious.
“The big deal we want to make is that we do care about environmental compliance,” Pivarnik said.
The port has been working to upgrade its stormwater system to meet state water treatment standards required under the port’s operations permits.
Failure to meet clean water standards could result in shutting down the Boat Haven’s marine work yard, port officials have warned.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
