This Was Avoidable
U.S Coast Gaurd Leads Cleanup Efforts in Large Diesel Spill
Saturday, May 1, 2004 (SF Chronicle) SUISUN MARSH/Weather, geography of
site aid in cleanup of diesel spill Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer
Cleanup of a large diesel oil spill in the Suisun Marsh south of Fairfield
was helped Friday by hot, windy weather, which is rapidly dissipating the
volatile fuel, state officials said.
Patrick Foy, a spokesman for the California Fish and Game Department, the agency leading the state response to the spill, said the configuration of the marsh -- which contains numerous levees and berms -- made it possible to isolate the spill with the aid of booms and absorbent pads. "There are skimmers working out there in the affected area, and they're sucking up the (contaminated) water and transferring it to large tanker trucks for eventual treatment," Foy said.
The 60,000-gallon spill, which resulted Tuesday night from a pipeline rupture beneath the 55,000-acre Suisun Marsh east of Highway 680 near Fairfield, has been contained to about 240 acres, authorities say. The 14-inch pipeline is owned by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners of Houston. Foy said about 40 people were involved in cleanup efforts. Jerry Engelhardt, a Kinder Morgan spokesman, said 400 feet of booms had been deployed by Thursday afternoon. Booms and crews aside, the biggest ally in the effort has been the weather. "We've had a lot of wind, and it's been very warm, and that's been a huge benefit," Foy said. "Diesel fuel tends to (volatilize) in these kinds of conditions. We expect a 20 to 40 percent reduction in a couple of days."
Lt. Lexia Littlejohn of the U.S. Coast Guard, which is heading federal efforts to clean up the spill, said progress has been encouraging. "The oil is evaporating very rapidly," Littlejohn said. "We're conducting air tests as the operation proceeds, and (pollutant) levels are not hazardous." Suisun Marsh is one of the Bay Area's richest wildlife habitats, home to everything from river otters to migratory waterfowl and shorebirds. At this time of year, the marsh burgeons with nesting birds and their young, leading to concerns that the spill would lead to significant wildlife deaths. So far, that hasn't occurred. By Friday afternoon, 19 injured or dead birds and mammals had been recovered. They included seven live teal ducklings and two mature ducks -- a bufflehead and a mallard. Three sandpipers, two plovers, three muskrats and a mole were found dead, said Dana Michaels, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Game's Office of Spill Prevention and Response. "There was also a sick beaver that was brought in, but it had to be euthanized," Michaels said. "We were fortunate in one regard -- the spill occurred just a couple of miles from the International Bird Rescue Research Center, which responded immediately."
Despite the generally upbeat assessment, Michaels cautioned there may be some bad news ahead. "In the spills I've covered, we often see that the fourth or fifth days following a spill are often the worst in terms of (bird) illness and mortality, " she said. "It usually takes that long for many of the birds to become impaired enough so they can't fly, which makes their capture possible." Kinder Morgan worked today to attach "stoppel" plugs to the ends of a one- mile section of the pipeline. Once the plugs are in place, the pipe section will be drained of remaining fuel and then removed for analysis, Engelhardt said. Engelhardt said the pipeline should be retrofitted, tested and ready to resume transporting fuel by Sunday. Some environmental groups are suggesting that Kinder Morgan may not have notified authorities soon enough about the spill. The company discovered something was wrong Tuesday night, but didn't contact state and federal agencies until Wednesday. Company officials said they wanted to determine the specific nature of the problem before alerting authorities. Foy said both Fish and Game and the Solano County district attorney's office will investigate to determine whether any criminal or civil charges are warranted.
The age of the pipeline -- 40 years -- has also raised concerns. Michaels said aging pipelines are a problem throughout California. "The whole state is spider-webbed with fuel pipelines," she said, "and many of them were put in before there was any real regulation -- that's 60 or more years ago." Michaels said that Kinder Morgan bought its pipeline system several years ago from Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp., and that the fuel transportation network has had problems in the past. "That system goes from Concord through the Sacramento Valley and then splits into two sections, one section going to Reno, the other to Chico," she said. "In 1997 (when Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp. owned the system), we had a big spill up on Donner Pass," Michaels said. "It was discovered by cross- country skiers, who smelled diesel through about 20 feet of snow."
Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle
