Spill recovery crews were busy on Nanaimo Harbour this morning after a cargo ship experienced a fuel leak that spilled into the water.
Michael Lowry, Western Canada Marine Response Corporation communications manager, said the company was alerted to the spill on Wednesday, July 26, by the crew of a cargo ship docked at the Nanaimo Port Authority Assembly Wharf.
“We got activated this morning, about six or seven o’clock, by the Maipo River,” Lowry said. “They had reports of a fuel spill. It was low-sulphur fuel, so basically the fuel that runs the vessel.”
WCMRC deployed three boats from its Nanaimo base to start an operation to contain the fuel while the crew of the Maipo River controlled the source of the fuel leaking from the vessel.
The 180-metre long, 21,000-tonne bulk carrier ship was built in 2009 and sails under the flag of Hong Kong, according to Vessel Finder.
“We contained the vessel with boom and then we began some further containment around the jetty where the vessel is,” Lowry said.
The company has also called in three craft from its base in Sidney that are capable of skimming oil from the surface of the water as a precautionary measure. An incident command post, led by the Canadian Coast Guard, has been set up at WCMRC’s Nanaimo response base.
Lowry said how much fuel was actually spilled was still being assessed.
“We’re just trying to figure that out right now,” he said. “It looks like a fair amount of fuel was captured by the log boom around that vessel, so we aren’t seeing a lot outside of that containment area, but I don’t have any confirmed numbers.”
He said there were no challenges or difficulties presented by weather during the containment operation, but he did not have an estimate regarding how long the total spill collection or clean-up might take.
“It’s still unfolding right now,” Lowry said. “We’re doing some protection strategies along the shoreline if the sheen reaches there.”
He did not have information about how the spill started or what the crew of the Maipo River did to control it from the ship.
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chris.bush@nanaimobulletin.com
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