SEATTLE – About 15 gallons of oil spread over one square mile of Seattle’s Elliott Bay on Friday, most likely from a source on or near Harbor Island, the Coast Guard said.
Petty Officer Kurt Fredrickson said the oil was too thinly spread to be removed by absorbent pads, but booms were placed around an area on the west side of Harbor Island after investigators found a heavier concentration of the spilled substance in this contaminated area.
The source of the pollution had not been determined. Harbor Island is an industrial area on the south side of Elliott Bay.
“It looks a lot worse than it is because it spread out,” Fredrickson said, explaining that one quart of oil could spread out to cover the area of two football fields.
Fredrickson called the leaked substance a “weathered oil product,” and said it was heavier than diesel. He said it would take the Department of Ecology a few days to determine the petroleum product’s exact makeup.
The sheen was spotted by a tugboat on the north side of the bay and reported to the Coast Guard at 7:10 a.m., Coast Guard Petty Officer Jeff Pollinger said. It also was reported by four planes that flew over the bay on a landing approach to Boeing Field.
The sheen spread between Smith Cove and Pier 70, said Ecology Department spokesman Larry Altose.
“Hopefully, we got it soon enough to get it stopped,” Altose said.
The Coast Guard sent a 41-foot boat and a helicopter to try to identify the cause, and others patrolled the shore on foot.
The Ecology Department also chartered a helicopter to fly over the area so investigators could get a better look at the sheen, Altose said.
There was no sign of damage to wildlife from the sheen, Pollinger said, nor did it appear to have reached the shore.
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