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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
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