Suspect tanker identified in Puget Sound Spill

[catbirdseat]

Maybe it's just me, but I find the name of the tanker a bit ironic: Polar Texas.

 

Local News: Friday, November 05, 2004

Oil-spill samples may point to Conoco tanker

 

By Steve Miletich and Craig Welch

Seattle Times staff reporters

 

Oil samples taken from Puget Sound after last month's mystery spill appear to match samples taken from a ConocoPhillips oil tanker, said two federal officials familiar with the inquiry.

 

Coast Guard investigators are focusing on the Polar Texas, a tanker operated by Polar Tankers, Conoco's Long Beach, Calif.-based shipping subsidiary, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

 

But chemical testing on the samples leaves room for dispute, and so far Conoco insists it isn't responsible for the spill, the officials said.

 

The identity of who is responsible has remained a key question weeks after the nighttime spill, which fouled 21 miles of beaches in south Puget Sound. Efforts to clean up at least 1,000 gallons of oil were hindered by fog and darkness.

 

Investigators have not notified Conoco of the test results and rebuffed inquiries from the Houston-based company, said a company representative, speaking on condition his name not be used.

 

Conoco "genuinely doesn't think it's them," the representative said.

 

But if the evidence proves otherwise, there is no reason to believe the spill was intentional or deliberately not reported, the representative said. More likely, the representative said, the cause would be equipment failure or undetected human error.

 

Conoco will be given a chance to dispute the test results and provide any other information, the federal officials said.

 

Conoco, in a written statement, said, "Although we do not believe we are the responsible party based upon our own ongoing internal inquiries, we continue to cooperate fully with the investigation."

 

Jeff Morgan, the lead Coast Guard investigator in the case, said the investigation is continuing and that he could neither confirm nor deny that one vessel has become a focus of the investigation.

 

Coast Guard investigators and state Department of Ecology officials met yesterday to discuss the latest developments.

 

The Polar Texas, which left Tacoma's Commencement Bay the afternoon of Oct. 13, is one of about a dozen vessels that were in the area at the time of the spill. The spill was reported about 1 a.m. Oct. 14 by a tug operator.

 

Environmental damage from the spill cost nearly $2 million to clean up, with minimal harm to wildlife.

 

The spill occurred in Dalco Passage between Tacoma and Vashon Island. It spread an oily slick as far south as the Tacoma Narrows and as far north as Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island. A slick was reported on 15 miles of shoreline and filmy coating on six miles of shoreline.

 

The response to the spill was delayed because of darkness and fog, allowing the slick to spread.

 

Coast Guard investigators took oil samples from the water and vessels that were in the area the night of the spill.

 

The Polar Texas was boarded by Coast Guard investigators for samples when it arrived in Valdez, Alaska, on Oct. 17. The Coast Guard also boarded three other vessels when they arrived in Alaska.

 

Oil samples from the Polar Texas were sent to a lab operated by the state Department of Ecology, said Dr. Wayne Gronlund, head of the Coast Guard's forensic lab in Groton, Conn., where other samples were sent.

 

Ecology officials declined comment on the investigation.

 

Defense lawyers most often challenge test results based on procedural grounds, such as whether the samples remained in a constant chain of custody, Gronlund said. But sometimes they argue that samples from the water were too contaminated by evaporation, dissolution or biodegradation to be useful, he said.

 

State and federal officials have said the party responsible for the spill could face civil or criminal penalties. No criminal investigation has been opened into the spill, which is being handled as an administrative inquiry by the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office in Seattle.

 

Conoco, in its written statement, said: "ConocoPhillips is a member of the Puget Sound community and safe and environmentally responsible operations are our top priority here and in all areas in which were operate."

 

Conoco, Alaska's top oil producer, has been lauded in recent years for being the first to build and put into operation new double-hulled oil tankers that watchdog groups consider among the safest in the crude-oil trade from Valdez. The $205 million Polar Endeavour and its sister ship, the Polar Discovery, are the first of five the company is building to ferry Alaska crude.

 

But Conoco also is the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, the Coast Guard and the state of Alaska over at least two possible spills the company reported earlier this year, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Mark Swanson in Valdez.

 

Parrish Moses, an investigator with Alaska's state Department of Environmental Conservation, said at least one incident involves an accusation that someone on board a vessel operated by Polar Tankers intentionally bypassed an oily-water separator, typically used to clean bilge or ballast water, and dumped waste oil. A recent Justice Department crackdown on the practice has resulted in millions of dollars in fines for other companies and prison time for several Northwest ship chief engineers and at least one captain.

 

Among other things, state officials are examining whether Conoco followed regulations on responding to and reporting spills.

 

In a written statement, the company said, "ConocoPhillips takes these issues very seriously. Safe and environmentally responsible operations are our top priority. ConocoPhillips management voluntarily reported these events to the authorities, and the company has been cooperative and will continue to cooperate fully ... "

 

In a separate case this fall, federal officials said ConocoPhillips would pay $485,000 in penalties for violations of the Clean Water Act at its Tyonek natural-gas platform in upper Cook Inlet. The Department of Justice and the federal Environmental Protection Agency said the violations — much of it the dumping of raw sewage — occurred for five years between 1999 and this year.

 

The Polar Texas tanker was not part of the Alaska cases. Built in 1973 and rebuilt in 1981, the double-bottom tanker is scheduled to be retired Nov. 19, according to the American Bureau of Shipping.

 

Coast Guard records show that the vessel had one significant spill in 1999 when it was named the Arco Texas and owned by Arco Marine. In that case, 1,092 gallons spilled June 27, 1999, at the Tosco refinery in Ferndale.

 

Seattle Times researcher Justin Mayo and Times staff reporter Mike Carter contributed to this report.

 

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com

 

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com

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[klenke]

Did you mean 'oxymoronic' not 'ironic?'

[catbirdseat]

Both

[Squid]

How does a tanker spill 1K gallons without being aware of it? Not a rhetorical question.

[catbirdseat]

Bunker fuel tank or transfer line springs a leak, oil goes into bilge. The Oil/ Water separator is either deliberately disabled or malfunctioning. Automatic bilge pumps sense the rising level in the bilge and pump it out.