FP: RE: [Seattle-editorial] article: Washington's Last Pristine Coastal Wetland Bites the Dust!

Thu Jan 1 21:49:43 PST 2004

Let's make this a feature.

Gentry

-----Original Message-----
From: seattle-editorial-bounces at lists.indymedia.org
[mailto:seattle-editorial-bounces at lists.indymedia.org]On Behalf Of
sheelanagig at juno.com
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2004 11:19 AM
To: seattle-editorial at indymedia.org
Subject: [Seattle-editorial] article: Washington's Last Pristine Coastal
Wetland Bites the Dust!

I posted it to the open newswire at
http://www.seattle.indymedia.org/en/2004/01/237430.shtml

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Washington’s Last Pristine Coastal Wetland Bites the Dust!
 By Kirsten Anderberg Copyright 2004

On Dec. 30, 2003, a refueling barge owned by Foss Maritime, at a
Chevron-Texaco fuel-transfer station near Edmonds, Wa., was OVERFILLED by
4,800 gallons. The marine fuel promptly spilled into the Puget Sound in
Washington State, just north of Seattle. By Dec. 31, it was a 105 square
mile oil slick. The oil slick moved across the Puget Sound and landed at
Jefferson Point, on the Kitsap Peninsula, to the west. This 400 acre
marine estuary, which some say is the LAST PRISTINE COASTAL WETLAND IN
WASHINGTON STATE, was sacred land to the Suquamish tribe, and is now an
oily mess. Crabs are black with goo, the local news reported one seal has
died, and birds are showing up incapacitated with the muck. Rescue teams
are on the scene to try to help the wildlife. The Suquamish tribe is
devastated (this also affects their fishing, and their clam beds are now
black). Herring spawn here in January, and whales migrate through these
waters, as do seals, fish, shellfish, and kelp
The picturesque driftwood
that sits on these Puget Sound beaches, is now black, from the oil that
drifted in, regardless of containment booms put in place within 10-15
minutes of the spill. Fred Felleman, the Northwest director of Ocean
Advocates, was quoted in the Seattle Times as saying the containment boom
used on Tuesday’s oil spill, “was inadequate.” Many feel higher-quality
booms are necessary if we want to protect our wildlife in the Pacific
Northwest. Foss Maritime says it complied with all state regulations,
and the spill’s cause is currently under investigation.

Current state laws do not require containment booms on site during
fuel transfers on the Puget Sound. Some environmental scientists,
activists, and lawmakers, are asking that a law requiring those
provisions be instituted in Washington State to help prevent future,
similar, environmental tragedies. Others are asking why there are not
automatic shut-off valves at the marine fueling stations, like most
automobile fuel stations have. The refueling lines pump 3,500 gallons a
minute, and some say it is too hard to stop that type of flow
immediately. But my argument would be that the automobile pumps do not
cut off the gas flow immediately. They taper down in flow. Who hasn’t
been pissed off waiting for those last few minutes of gas to trickle out
on those prepaid pumps? They could use the same concept to make a device
that measures the marine fuel tank capacity, just like car tanks, and
stops the flow, slowly, the closer to it gets to “full!” We need to do
something, because, according to the Seattle Times, this same facility
had a 4,000 gallon fuel spill that caused an estimated $3 million in
damages, and polluted 16 miles of Puget Sound shoreline, in 1990. How is
it this happened AGAIN at the same place?

Let’s rewind to June 1998. "This spill could have been avoided if U.S.
Oil’s oil-transfer procedures had provided adequate crosschecks by
operators to verify the status of valves," said Stan Norman, supervisor
for the U. S. Dept. of Ecology’s oil-spill prevention activities. "Their
procedures for preventing tank overfills also proved inadequate. It makes
good environmental sense to require these alarms." This is a quote from
1998, from an article on the Washington State Dept. of Ecology’s Webpage
(<a
href="http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/1998news/98-086.html">http://www.ecy.wa.
gov/news/1998news/98-086.html</A>). Norman was responding to a
75,390-gallon oil spill that occurred on March 16, 1998, at the U.S. Oil
and Refining Company’s Tacoma, Wa. dock. Investigators determined the
spill occurred because a bypass valve was inadvertently left open during
a fueling operation with an oil barge. The open valve caused fuel to back
flow through a pipeline, overfilling a 357,000-gallon fuel-storage tank.
The spill polluted soil and contaminated ground water. Kim Wigfield, from
the Dept. of Ecology, is quoted in this article as saying, "If U.S. Oil
had met existing state requirements for its containment areas, the March
oil spill probably would not have gotten to ground water" and "The bottom
line is we want to prevent this from ever happening again. But if U.S.
Oil has another spill, we want assurance that the environment is
protected." U.S. Oil was found negligent for causing the spill and
allowing the oil to enter state waters, and they were fined $30,000 by
the Dept. of Ecology. They also had to install “high level alarms” on
their 4 largest storage tanks. U.S. Oil has one of the worst oil spill
histories in Wa. state, and often get away with little or no fines for
the havoc they wreak. In 1991, they spilled 1,000+ gallons of emulsified
asphalt with no fines, and 600,000 gallons of crude oil with $45,000 in
fines. In 1992, they spilled 500-800 gallons of diesel fuel with no
fines. In 1993, they spilled 264,000 gallons of crude oil with no fines.
In 2994, they spilled 7,000 gallons of jet fuel and were fined $10,000,
etc.

Looking at the Dept. of Ecology’s record with U.S. Oil, their oil
spills, and the penalties the Dept. of Ecology assessed, it is no wonder
the oil companies are not taking this issue of oil spills seriously.
Minimal fines, and pathetic recoveries of habitat, leave the public the
one to pay for the oil companies’ profits, once again. Could alarms, or
shut-off values, or better booms, or required booms for fueling, or even
stiffer penalties, be implemented to help prevent these reoccurring
overfueling accidents in Edmonds? The old saying goes the next big
earthquake comes when you forget about the last big one. The same applies
to oil spills. We forget to follow through on proper legislation,
agitation, activism, lobbying, etc., and then another oil spill comes,
and we wonder how it happened.

*************************************************************************
*********************
For near-daily political ramblings from Kirsten, visit her blog at
www.kanderberg.blogspot.com
or go to her writing website at www.kirstenanderberg.com. For email
alerts when articles by Kirsten
are published, go to google.com and sign up for their news alerts in her
name.

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