The Burnaby-based company handling cleanup efforts for Vancouver's oil spill is calling its response "phenomenal," despite criticism from B.C.'s premier that it took six hours before the source was surrounded with boom.
Western Canada Marine Response Corporation, the company that handles oil spills along the entire West Coast of B.C., had boom around the Marathassa in roughly six hours after the call to come in.
"The response time was exceptionally quick," said the corporation's spokesperson Michael Lowry.
The Marathassa, a cargo ship on its maiden voyage, was leaking oil from an open valve in the lower portion of its hull.
Last week, Premier Christy Clark criticized the response efforts while speaking to reporters.
"I am very, very disappointed that the City of Vancouver was not notified till 12 hours after it happened," Clark said, "equally, even more disappointed, I would say that it took them six hours to get booms in place - six hours to get booms in place in the busiest port in Canada, where they have the resources."
Lowry explained that's because the Marathassa didn't report the spill, and the response crews couldn't tell where the oil was coming from at first.
"When we were on scene, the source of the spill was unknown still, so we had nothing to wrap the boom around," Lowry said. "We didn't know where the oil was coming from.
"The crews, through our skimming, suspected it was the Marathassa," Lowry said. "It's very challenging to know where it's coming from until you begin skimming (oil from the water's surface)."
Cleanup crews arrived on the scene at 9:25 p.m. Wednesday night. About 6.5 hours later, at roughly 4 a.m., they started laying boom around the Marathassa, after using an infrared camera to help determine where the oil was coming from. Roughly two hours later, the ship was contained.
Based on Transport Canada's overhead flights, an estimated 2,700 litres (roughly 17 barrels) of oil leaked into English Bay, and Western Canada Marine Response Corporation has recovered roughly four-fifths of that.
"From our perspective, to be on scene within an hour and 19 minutes to be activated and clean up 80 per cent of approximately 2,700 litres within 20 hours is phenomenal," Lowry said.
The corporation deployed six of vessels, 1,600 metres of boom and approximately 35 personnel.
According to Lowry, the easternmost point the oil has spread is Vancouver's New Brighton Park, and that was a minor amount of oil. No oil has shown up on Burnaby shores yet.
Western Canada Marine Response Corporation is now cleaning up beaches and monitoring shores that have already been cleaned to make sure no new oil washes ashore. Affected beaches include Vancouver's New Brighton Park and second and third beaches in Stanley Park, West Vancouver's Ambleside and Sandy Cove, and a spot east of the Lions Gate Bridge on the North Shore.
The corporation will also clean the hulls of about six vessels that are covered in oil.
Lowry said members of the public should not take it upon themselves to clean up the oil.
"You have to do a shoreline cleanup assessment technique, so scientists walk the beach and determine the level of oiling on the beach, and they determine the most appropriate cleanup technique," he said. "You need to take a systematic approach to investigate all the beaches. ... They should let the professionals handle it."
Transport Canada officials are investigating the cause of the leak. It's also not clear how much oil was lost from the ship, so there's no way to corroborate Transport Canada's estimates on the spill's volume.
"I think it's still under investigation, and our focus is really almost exclusively on the response," Jim Lawrence, spokesperson for the ship's company, told the NOW.
However, Lawrence confirmed the ship's crew, marine engineering experts and the authorities identified that the source was "an outlet valve in the lower portion of the hull, which has been cleaned and closed."
The ship was built in 2015, and its home port is Cyprus. The company that owns the ship will likely be responsible for paying the cleanup costs.
Timeline:
- Wednesday, April 8, 5:10 p.m.: A recreational boater reports oil around Marathassa to Canadian Coast Guard.
- 5:14 p.m. Coast Guard informs emergency management partners.
- 6:08 p.m. WCMRC is informed and on standby.
- 8:06 p.m. WCMRC moves into action.
- 9:25 p.m. WCMRC arrives on scene with vessels.
- Thursday, April 9, at apx. 4 a.m., WCMRC suspects Marathassa is the source, and crews begin laying boom around the ship.
- 5:53 a.m., WCMRC has surrounded the Marathassa with protective boom.
- Approximately 6 a.m., City of Vancouver is notified of the spill.
