Barge-spill cleanup underway along Gorge
A shoreline cleanup specialist started picking debris from the Gorge shoreline on Monday, three days after a listing barge sent dozens of flattened cars into the Gorge Waterway.
“[On Monday] the contractors involved in the cleanup process have been focusing on the surface cleanup and the recoverable pollution on the water,” said Pader Brach, manager of response and recovery for the B.C. environmental emergencies program.
The shoreline specialist was contracted by Schnitzer Steel, a scrap-metal recycling company in the Rock Bay area that was operating the barge.
Brach said the cleanup effort couldn’t start until the barge was stabilized.
Even now, cars are hanging off the side so there are safety concerns in the immediate vicinity of the barge, Brach said.
“Monday is the first day when they have been able to determine if the barge is stable enough that they can send in crews for surface cleanup, such as water skimmers to pick up some of the debris closer to the barge area,” Brach said.
A sheen of hydrocarbons can be seen in the water but a large boom has been wrapped around the accident site to contain the fuel. The B.C. Environment Ministry has said the ecological damage is relatively minor because metal recyclers are required to remove fuel from vehicles before they are transported.
An excavator was removed from the barge on Sunday.
Experts are trying to determine why the barge, owned by Seaspan, tilted Friday, sending dozens of cars, hot water tanks and other scrap metal into the waterway. No one was injured.
A Salish Sea Industrial Services crane is unloading metal from the listing barge until it is re-balanced.
Once that is done, the remaining load will be secured to the barge and it will be moved Point Hope Shipyard on Harbour Road for inspection.
The barge inspection won’t assess the loading that took place Friday before the accident, but rather the integrity of the barge itself.
“I think the fact that we are focused in on the barge would tend to indicate that’s where we think the problem was,” said Schnitzer spokesman Mike Geoghegan. “At this point I have not received any information that indicates what the cause was.”
Geoghegan said security cameras have captured some of what happened on Friday, including the loading of the barge, so that video and other information could be analyzed.
“The whole idea here is to ensure this doesn’t happen again, so we want to be really clear what the reasons were for the cause,” Geoghegan said. “We’re not leaving any stone unturned in terms of finding out what the cause is.”
The company found at fault will be responsible for the environmental cleanup, which in the short term includes removing the cars in the water, according to the Environment Ministry.
That company will have to obtain a permit through the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to pull the cars from the bottom of the bay, Brach said.
WorkSafe B.C. continues to investigate and could issue a report as early as next week. Transport Canada and the Environment Ministry are also investigating.