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Four Things We May Never Know About the Vancouver Fuel Spill

April 30, 2015

Four Things We May Never Know About the Vancouver Fuel Spill

Total volume, how the Kits coast guard would respond, and two more big 

Late Saturday afternoon, Transport Canada officially clearedthe MV Marathassa to leave Canadian waters, weeks after the ship spilled an undetermined amount of fuel into Burrard Inlet.

As it exits the Salish Sea, the bulk carrier leaves angry mayors, a combative coast guard, a distrustful public and many, many questions in its wake. Here are four things we don’t know — and may never know — about what happened in English Bay.

1. What is the total spill volume?

In his first press conference after the spill, Cmdr. Roger Girouard of the Canadian Coast Guard stated the volume of the spill was 2,700 litres. He reiterated this point during subsequent media appearances, and Industry Minister James Moore echoed his comments.

Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem disputes the claim. In a recent presentation to Vancouver’s city council, she pegged the real volume somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 litres.

Then there’s the amount recovered. The day after the spill, Cmdr. Girouard reported cleanup crews had recovered about 1,400 litres of fuel. A few days later, Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas said cleanup crews recovered 80 per cent of fuel spilled within 36 hours.

 

According to the president of a B.C. oil spill prevention and response planning firm, recovering between 10 and 15 per cent of conventional oil spilled in seawater is a “best case” scenario. Bunker C fuel — the product spilled in English Bay — is not conventional: it is denser, more viscous and heavier than conventional crude. Unlike conventional oil, bunker C fuel is not certain to floatnor does it weather and dissolve as easily.

On average only five to 10 per cent of the bunker C fuel will evaporate within 24 hours. Instead it breaks into tarballs and settles lower in the water column — sometimes as far as one to three metres below the surface.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

 

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