Barge with excavator, tugboat go under in Snohomish River Wednesday

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, December 10, 2025

EVERETT — A small group of people watched as a barge with an excavator on board pulled a tugboat under the water with it Wednesday afternoon as it sank into the Snohomish River in Everett.

The tugboat was assisting the barge, which was doing work on the BNSF railroad bridge across the Snohomish River, when the barge began to take on water near the mouth of the river, where it meets Port Gardner Bay, according to Washington State Department of Ecology spokesperson Scarlet Tang. An additional tugboat was mobilized to stabilize the boats.

Around 10:20 a.m. Wednesday, the Washington State Department of Ecology became aware of the incident, Tang said in an email. There were no injuries.

Advanced American Construction Inc. owns the Tug McCarver and operates but does not own the barge, Tang said in an email.

Crews will remove the 300-gallon fuel tank on the barge and the fuel from the tugboat, Tang said. Once the fuel has been removed from the vessels, crews will remove the shipping container and the excavator from the barge. Once the potential pollutants are removed, the vessels can be raised.

Due to river conditions and poor visibility from sediment in the water, there is no timeline for when the fuel sources will be removed and the vessels recovered, Tang said in an email.

Advanced American Construction Inc. declined to comment on Thursday.

The cause of the incident is unclear. Once the barge is raised, those involved will have a better idea of what happened, Tang said in an email. At this time, it does not appear that the river’s flow levels were the cause, according to Tang.

While there is a risk of fuel polluting the river, Tang said they haven’t observed fuel leaks as of early Thursday afternoon. However, the river’s current condition is not ideal for observing oil on the water.

This is a developing story. Check back for further updates.

Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com. X: @JennaMillikan