Marquette Oil Spill Cleanup Underway
April 22, 08 by TheFleetIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
By Samantha Liebman | Source: WLUC TV6
MARQUETTE — A tug boat accident early Monday morning resulted in 30 gallons of oil being spilled into Marquette’s Lower Harbor.
The U.S. Coast Guard and contractors spent the day cleaning it up.
As of Monday night, the cleanup was still going on.
The tug boat Dorothy Ann was leaving the Shiras Power Plant when, at about 6:30 a.m. it touched the lake bottom.
“They notified the Coast Guard immediately and the Coast Guard launched assets to begin deploying boom to contain the oil that was spilled into the harbor,” said Chief Petty Officer Brad Adams. “We also bought in representatives from the city to take action as far as closing off the harbor to recreational traffic.”
The Dorothy Ann also deployed its own boom and hired a contractor to assist with cleanup. Fortunately, the good weather helped.
“Most of it has evaporated,” said Petty Officer Aaron Borg. “It’s a very nice day out. The wind and the waves and the sunlight really help a lot. And what’s left, the contractors are cleaning up in natural collection spots.”
And as day turned into evening, the oil was accumulating in those spots. That’s where contractors put out absorbent materials, awaiting a vacuum truck to suck up the remaining sludge.
“You’re looking at something that could provide a rather significant-looking sheen within the harbor, but in all actuality is something that Mother Nature is going to evaporate off the water,” said CPO Adams. “So, yeah, it was smelly around this morning, very inconvenient and it did require a pretty substantial effort just to get on top and ensure the safety of our harbor.”
And according to the Coast Guard’s marine science specialist, the mission will be accomplished.
“There shouldn’t be much damage at all,” said Petty Officer Borg. “The oil’s dissipated naturally, so people shouldn’t have to worry about catching fish and eating them out of here or anything like that.”
They speculate that a new sandbar formed over the winter and that’s what this ship hit.
The Coast Guard is still investigating, trying to determine exactly what happened and find the piece of the boat that broke, causing the oil to leak.
Officials expected the cleanup to be completely done by Tuesday morning. Until then, the Lower Harbor will remain closed.
