EDMONDS, Wash. – Just less than 6,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil spilled into Puget Sound early Tuesday as it was being transferred to a barge from the Chevron facility at Point Wells near Edmonds, the Coast Guard said.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Kurt Fredrickson said the spill of No. 6 bunker oil was reported about 12:15 a.m.
U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Keith Alholm said 10 skimmers have been deployed and that there are 18 vessels in the water testing conditions and looking for spilled oil. A total of about 100 people were working on the cleanup.
As of 2 p.m., roughly 1,200 gallons of the spilled oil had been recovered, Alholm said. He said an updated number would be provided later in the day, but “it sometimes takes a couple of days to determine how much oil has been collected” because what is initially gathered is an oil-and-water mixture.
Fredrickson earlier in the day said Coast Guard pollution investigators were on the scene with officials from the state Ecology Department. Clean up crews have been hired from three companies: Foss Environmental, Marine Spill Response and Clean Sound.
Joe Langjahr, a spokesman for Foss Martitime, which owns the barge that spilled the oil, said the barge was simply overfilled, causing the spill. He said further investigation will be needed to determine why the barge was filled too high.
The Coast Guard is asking that anyone who sees oil not handle it or try to clean in themselves. Alholb asked anyone who sees oil to mark the location and report it to the Coast Guard. A phone number will be provided later in the day.
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