09/25/2007: "No Amount Too Small To Respond To"

The loss of approximately three gallons of oil into the waters of Fildalgo Bay resulted in a quick response from the Shell Puget Sound Refinery near Anacortes, and according to a Department of Ecology (DOE) news release, there was an unrelated spill of 70-gallons of diesel fuel at the Tulalip Marina near Marysville when a 65-foot fishing vessel sank.

The DOE is reportedly investigating the actions taken at the Shell Puget Sound Refinery near Anacortes that allowed oil to spray from a loose flange on the company's dock. The accident occurred when a Shell Co. dock operator was trying to drain oil in a marine loading arm to the crude oil line. The crude oil, mixed with other petroleum products, spilled off the dock and entered Fildalgo Bay. on Saturday, Sept. 22.

On the following Sunday the fishing vessel Saint Nicholas sank at the Tulalip Marina, and was responded to by the Tulalip Tribe, who used an oil containment boom, and other spill response equipment provided by DOE earlier this year to the Tribe. The tribal responders were able to place the boom around the ship and used absorbent materials to collect nearly all the fuel on the water.

As for the spill at the refinery, the oil was trapped in the water under the refinery dock and up against the side of an oil tanker anchored at the refinery. Ecology responders and private cleanup contractors determined that the spill was too thin to be recovered from the water.

Shell has been under an Ecology administrative order since Feb. 28 to inspect all marine oil transfer pipelines that run from the dock to the refinery. Each transfer pipeline is approximately three miles long.. The department issued the order after three small spills occurred between July 2006 and January 2007 due to external and internal corrosion in the refinery's lines.