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Ruptured barge spills 14,000 gallons of fuel oil in Buzzards Bay
By Associated Press, 4/28/03
FALMOUTH, Mass. -- Wind and choppy surf spread thousands of gallons of oil across the beaches and shores of Buzzard's Bay on Monday after a barge split its hull and leaked the fuel into one of the state's prime shellfishing areas. The estimated 14,700 gallons of oil, broken up by waves and pushed by winds, began washing up on shores north and west of the bay, despoiling loons, ducks and other waterfowl and raising concerns about the impact on shellfishing, which state officials ordered halted Monday. Buzzards Bay, west of Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, produces quahogs, softshell clams, scallops and oysters. "We certainly apologize to the citizens of Massachusetts," said Morton Bouchard, president and CEO of Bouchard Transportation Co., which owns the barge. He said the company was "cooperating 100 percent" with authorities. Barge No. 120, en route from Philadelphia to the Mirant Canal Power Plant at Sandwich, Mass., was being towed by a tug boat when it apparently hit a rock or the bay's bottom and ruptured Sunday afternoon, said U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Mary Landry. The spill was reported to the Coast Guard at about 5:30 p.m. By Monday afternoon, the leak from the 12-foot by 2-foot crack in the single-hulled barge had been contained. But a "nice calm day" turned blustery, and soon 15- to 25-knot winds began pushing the oil toward shore, said Steve Lehmann of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. Oil-skimming boats trolled the bay, scooping up the spilled fuel. But the coastline, with its many coves, peninsulas and islands, made cleanup difficult for the two large private vessels, which were joined later Monday by a Coast Guard vessel, Lehmann said. By late afternoon, the oil had killed at least four loons and a duck. Other oily fowl were taken to a nearby zoo for treatment, but were not expected to survive, said Tom O'Shea of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. "At this point, it's not a large number, but we're sure it will change," he said. The closure of shellfish beds would affect most of the bay, except for the northernmost portion leading into the Cape Cod Canal, said Dave Whittaker, a senior marine fisheries biologist at state Division of Marine Fisheries. Whittaker said the bay was an active spot for commercial shellfishing at this time of year. "We're not real happy about this barge leaking oil in Buzzards Bay," he said. A second Bouchard barge was brought to the scene from New York to transfer fuel out of Barge No. 120, Landry said. The company contracted Scuba divers to inspect the split in the hull of the 376-foot barge, which was built in 1975. Afterward, the tug pilot -- who was properly licensed -- underwent drug and alcohol tests. Results will take a couple of days, Landry said. It was not Bouchard's first spill. A Bouchard vessel was responsible for an 81,000 gallon spill in 1978, the area's largest, and the company had another smaller spill in 1974. Bouchard has been in the news in recent months. In February, an explosion and fire killed two people when a Bouchard-owned barge was unloading gasoline at the Exxon Mobil depot on New York's Staten Island. The incident is still under investigation. A Bouchard barge captain also was found to be legally drunk during an oil spill last year in New York's East River. Bouchard's company Web site describes it as "a total service oil barging company." The family-owned company was founded in 1918 and it listed in its fleet 30 barges ranging from 4,500 barrels to 252,000 barrels and 17 tugs ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 horsepower. The last oil spill in the bay was in 1990, when another company spilled 7,500 gallons of oil, according to Mark Rasmussen, executive director of the environmental group Coalition for Buzzards Bay. "It's all over the bay," he said by telephone from a boat in the bay where scientists were taking water samples. The cleanup was complicated because the oil had broken up into floating "tar balls," he said. "It's hard to clean up because it's so heavy and so dispersed," Rasmussen said. At Fairhaven, harbormaster Gary Golas said he could see a slick just 500 feet off shore. "I'm standing here, just watching it," he said. "I had some recreation fishermen coming in and it's definitely on the side of their boats -- very heavy dark oil, gooey, and sticky." ------ On the Net: Division of Marine Fisheries: http://www.state.ma.us/dfwele/dmf/ Bouchard Transportation Co. Inc.: .http://www.bouchardtransport.com/Contacts.htm |
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