SEATTLE — U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, says he’ll file legislation in the House this week aimed at preventing the kind of oil spills that occurred three years ago at Point Wells, on the border of Snohomish and King counties.
Inslee, who sits on a key commerce panel and helped keep restrictions on oil tankers in Puget Sound this fall, made the announcement Monday, Dec. 12, during his keynote address at a forum of experts from Washington and Alaska on ways to improve oil-spill prevention and maintain limits on oil-tanker traffic in Puget Sound.
“We have reason to be proud of our success, but cannot become complacent,” Inslee said. “Together, we also need to fight for new environmental protections.”
Inslee’s bill will be aimed at preventing spills during the oil-transfer process and decreasing spill response time.
The incident at Point Wells, a hot asphalt processing facility then-owned by Chevron, occurred during a transfer of oil from a barge to the facility’s tanks. The resulting slick was blown across Puget Sound and befouled sensitive beach areas in Kitsap County.
Containment booms were delayed by 30 minutes after that 4,800-gallon spill because vessels dispatched to the scene during the cold December night wouldn’t start immediately.
Monday’s two-hour forum came after a series of well-publicized spills in Puget Sound. In addition to the Point Wells spill, 100 gallons of diesel fuel leaked out of a derelict tug boat that sank this fall near Port Gamble. In October 2004, an estimated 1,000 gallons of heavy-grade fuel oil spread overnight from a tanker in the Dalco Passage near Tacoma before being reported and contained.
Other forum participants included Fred Felleman from Ocean Advocates, Kathy Fletcher from People For Puget Sound and Mike Cooper, chairman of the Washington State Oil Spill Citizens Advisory Council, among others.
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