Cleanup of the Dec. 30 oil spill near the Edmonds waterfront is now complete, but the effects of the 4,637 gallons of fuel that spilled into Puget Sound are still being felt.
Cleanup officials said this week that they are monitoring conditions now that all the oil that can easily be removed is gone.
“There is almost no visible sign of oil,” said Dale Jensen, spills manager for the state Department of Ecology.
Most of the oil washed up on the Suquamish Tribe’s Doe-Keg-Wats marsh on Kitsap Peninsula.
“We feel pretty good, because a lot of oil isn’t visible anymore,” said Leonard Forsman, a spokesman for the Suquamish Tribe. “We still have some concerns on what affect this will have on the ecosystem and the tribal members who go out there.”
The tribe has kept the beach closed until it can do more tests.
The beach also remains closed to clamming until the state Department of Health can test the species found there. That should take several weeks or more.
“I don’t really know what to anticipate,” said Bob Woolrich, a manager in the agency’s shellfish program, saying this is the first shellfish beach ever closed in the state because of an oil spill. “The concentrations of oil in the shellfish should be getting lower by the day.”
Use of the beach normally picks up each summer, Forsman said, and tribal members have been asking when they will be allowed back.
“It’s one of the few waterfront areas open to tribal use on the reservation,” he said, adding that it’s normally used for recreation, clamming and cultural ceremonies. “People are used to being able to go out there.”
Foss Maritime of Seattle is paying for the cleanup. The cost was not released, but it’s estimated at several million dollars.
The spill occurred when a Foss Maritime barge was overfilled at a fueling station at Point Wells. Investigations into the spill by the Department of Ecology and the U.S. Coast Guard are not finished.
“We’ve pledged to see the response to this spill through for as long as it takes,” said Bruce Reed, Foss Maritime’s incident commander. “This important milestone is not the end of the response by any means.”
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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