Position of sunken vessles in Hoquiam River complicates recovery efforts

By Dan Hammock • October 19, 2018 7:00 pm
PHOTO COURTESY OF DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY Contract divers prepare to enter the Hoquiam River at the site where two vessels sank Wednesday to assess options for removing the diesel fuel leaking from one or both of the boats Friday morning.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY Contract divers prepare to enter the Hoquiam River at the site where two vessels sank Wednesday to assess options for removing the diesel fuel leaking from one or both of the boats Friday morning.

Contract divers hired by the Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection Agency discovered during a dive Friday morning that the two vessels that sank in the Hoquiam River on Wednesday were stacked one on top of the other, which will complicate the removal of diesel fuel and the vessels themselves.

“The owners of the vessels were unable to come up with a plan to raise the vessels and remove the fuel (Thursday), so (Friday) Ecology and the EPA have hired Global Diving and Salvage Inc. to dive on the vessels,” said Sandy Howard, communications manager for Ecology’s Spill Response Program.

Divers suited up by around 10 a.m. and reported to DOE response supervisor Alison Myers that, because of the position of the sunken vessels, removal of the fuel would be difficult. At 11 a.m., Myers and her team were devising options for the safe removal of any hazardous materials.

“Ecology, Fish and Wildlife and the Quinault Tribe had personnel on scene Thursday to delineate upstream and downstream impacts and collect samples to confirm the presence of oil on the water,” said Howard. “Lab tests have confirmed this is diesel, but we still do not know how much has been released.”

DOE crews deployed a boom to contain the spill around the site, located at 220 Monroe St., just upriver of the Riverside Bridge. Myers said the spill has been contained as of Friday morning, and Global Diving and Salvage personnel will continue to clean up any recoverable oil.

So far, no adverse affects have been noted among birds and other wildlife in the area. There was to be a shoreline survey at the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge Friday “to determine if there are any impacts from the spill,” said Howard.

The two vessels sank some time before noon Wednesday, when reports of a foul-smelling and obvious sheen drifting downriver past Al’s Hum-Dinger restaurant came in to the Department of Ecology. Both vessels are 45- to 50-feet long — one is concrete hulled, the other fiberglass and wood. Howard said the two were tied together, and when one went under, the other followed.

Wednesday’s sinkings marked the fourth in the past several months at the same property. The owner of the property, Mart Liikane, also owns one of the two vessels that went down Wednesday.

Ultimately, the responsibility for the cleanup effort and removal of the vessels falls on the boat owners, said Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay.

“The boat owner is responsible (for the removal of the vessels) and will be charged for the cleanup by Ecology,” he said. “The bigger story here is that this is a continuing problem/issue arising at the same location.”

The Department of Ecology is posting updates of the cleanup effort on their Twitter page, @EcySW.