History Detail
Incident Name: T/B NESTUCCA

Subject: USCG Case History

Incident Date: 12/23/1988

Incident Location: Grays Harbor, Washington

Author: USCG Case History

Latitude: 46 55 N

Longitude: 124 15 W

USCG District: 13

Product: Bunker C

Type: 4

Volume: 5500

Source:Tank Barge

RAR: Eelgrass, diving coastal birds, waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, raptors, seals, sea otters, oysters, crabs, clams, commercial fisheries.

Dispersants: No

Bioremediation: No

In-Situ Burning: Yes

Special Interest Topic(s): Closure of commercial fishing areas, effects to recreational areas, interaction with foreign or Native authorities, experimental cleanup techniques, volunteer response and organization, wildlife impacts, wildlife rehabilitation.

Shoreline Type(s) Impacted: Marshes, sand/gravel beaches, tidal mudflats, exposed rocky shores, vertical rocky shores.

Summary: In the early morning of December 23, 1988, the tug Ocean Service collided with its tow, the barge Nestucca, while trying to replace a broken tow line. Both the barge and tug were owned by Sause Brothers Ocean Towing Co. of Coos Bay, Oregon and were en route from Ferndale, Washington to Portland, Oregon when the collision occurred approximately 3 kilometers off the coast of Washington, near Grays Harbor. The barge was carrying over 69,000 barrels of Number 6 fuel oil. The tug punctured a cargo tank, releasing an estimated 5500 barrels of the heavy marine fuel into the ocean. It was an overcast, moonlit night and the vessels were reportedly rolling in 6 to 10 foot swells.

Behavior: Bunker C fuel oil is a heavy product with an API gravity that ranges from 7 to 14. The oil began to impact the beaches in Grays Harbor on the morning of the spill, and was reported to be spreading to the north. By noon on December 23, 1988, USCG personnel at Westport reported that beaches inside Grays Harbor were covered with 1/2 inch thick patches of oil. Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) representatives reported that oil was washing ashore near Ocean Shores, Washington. Offshore oil was observed mainly in the form of light sheen with small patches and pancakes of oil. The oil impacted several coastal beaches in the area of Ocean Shores in the first five days. No oil from this spill was observed on beaches south of Grays Harbor. The oil moving north formed sheen; however, it was later determined that a substantial slick was moving beneath the surface. The initial estimates of the amount spilled were inaccurate and only small globules of oil could be detected at sea by December 29, 1988. Oil came ashore in Canada on Vancouver Island from near Victoria in the southeast to near Cape Scott in the north. Along the coastline, the CCG estimated that a total of about 95 miles of shoreline were oiled, with 1.5 miles heavily oiled. The first impact of oil was on December 31, 1988, at Carmanah Point, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Over the next 15 days, the oil reached to Cape Scott at the northwest tip of Vancouver Island. On January 27, 1989, oiled material, determined to be from the Nestucca, was found in the Moore Islands area on the mainland of British Columbia.

Countermeasures/Mitigation: There was no attempt made at open water recovery by Canadian or U.S. authorities. High seas and currents precluded the use of containment booms, as did the fact that the oil was frequently not detected at sea before beaching. The use of skimmers and other methods of oil recovery were deemed to be ineffective as surface oil was not contained in booms. The USCG On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) did not seek authorization for dispersant use because approval was unlikely, and use of dispersants on Bunker C oil would likely be ineffective after the considerable weathering of the oil.\\Grays Harbor consists of marshes and tidal flats, mostly mudflats. The Scientific Support Coordinator (SSC) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recommended that no cleanup of the mudflats be attempted. \\The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) strictly monitored helicopter use in the Olympic National Park, Washington, area due to the presence of Bald Eagles in the area. Many of the affected locations along the northern part of the Washington coastline were extremely inaccessible to vehicles and cleanup equipment. Some oiled driftwood had to be cut up and removed by helicopter for disposal. Cleanup personnel needed special permission from the NPS to use power tools within the Olympic National Park grounds. \\Most of the shoreline cleanup was manual. Oiled debris and gravel were shoveled and raked into plastic bags that were eventually sling-loaded by helicopter to a disposal site (or trucked if the area was accessible by roads). Petromesh, oil snares, and oil-absorbing pompoms were used to scrape and absorb oil from the boulders, eelgrass, and beach sand.\\Cleanup of the shoreline was completed by April 21, 1989, when most of Washington's beaches were declared clean by the OSC. Passive cleaning using anchored oil snares continued at Norwegian Memorial and Yellow Bank for another two months. Both sites are within Olympic National Park.

Other Special Interest(s): Several experimental techniques were tested for use in cleaning up the shoreline. Under experimental conditions at the CCG Base at Amphirite Point, napalm was used to burn oil off contaminated rocks. This was not put to real use during the spill because the napalm did not burn enough of the oil during the tests. At Bajo Point, flame throwers (Tiger Torches) were tested on the environmentally sensitive cobble beach. This was not used during the cleanup because it moved the oil, risking the formation of new slicks on the water and the contamination of the gravel substrata.\\At Bajo Point, a beach near a Sea Otter colony, an archaeological site, and an Indian Reserve, oil contaminated cobbles and gravel were burned in a reciprocating kiln between February 20 and 25. This was inefficient because of both the small amount of oil and huge quantity of contaminated material requiring treatment. At several locations heavily oiled logs were burned. These included some important tourist beaches and several islands in the Pacific Rim National Park. On West Coast Trail beaches, oiled logs were experimentally burned on oiled gravel, burning to a depth of half a meter. This method was then put in practice at Estevan, Brooks Peninsula, Nootka Island, and islands within Pacific Rim National Park in the Broken Group Islands. In the Stubbs Island area, contaminated eelgrass was cut and removed during low tide. The eelgrass is a crucial link in the food chain in this ecosystem.\\Oiled debris and logs were burned at sites approved by the Washington DOE. Approximately 585 tons of non-burnable debris was disposed of in the Aberdeen, Washington landfill.\\Sea Otters, Harbor Seals, Pacific Oysters and Dungeness Crabs are also present, and were believed to be at risk. In the coastal waters, marine diving birds and the coastal Razor Clam fisheries were believed to be at risk. While high mortality was not expected among the crabs and clams, their tainting would make them unfit for harvesting for months.\\The most disastrous impact as a result of the spill was to waterfowl. Many species of waterfowl are present in Grays Harbor, including Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants, Common Murres, Rhinoceros Auklets, diving and dabbling ducks and assorted shorebirds. Overwintering Peregrine Falcons and Bald Eagles are also present in the bay. More than 10,300 oiled birds were collected; roughly 9,300 were dead or died at the treatment centers. Most of these were Common Murres and assorted grebes (Western, Red-necked, Horned and Eared Grebes all winter in this area). Many more were believed to have died and never collected.\\The responsible party hired an expert from the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) who used volunteers and personnel from the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) and the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) to staff the bird rescue and rehabilitation center at Ocean Shores, Washington. Over 3,000 birds were treated at the center, two-thirds of which died. Approximately 1,000 birds were released from the center. \\The Bald Eagle, fish, shellfish, and sea otter communities that were at risk were determined to be unaffected by the spill or response by the Washington Marine Resource Damage Assessment Team. No tainting of shellfish was reported nor were any fisheries reportedly closed as a result of the spill. On January 6, 1989, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans closed two shellfish areas on Vancouver Island to prevent possibly contaminated shellfish from reaching the market.\\References\\•Gundlach, E. and Marshall, M. 1990. The Physical Persistence of Spilled Oil: An Analysis of Oil Spills Previous to Exxon Valdez. Final Report. HAZMAT. OAD. NOAA. pp. 47-68. \•Nestucca Oil Spill Report, Canadian Coast Guard, June 1989\•NOAA Response Report\•Owens, E.H. 1991. Shoreline Evaluation Methods Developed During the Nestucca Response in British Columbia. Oil Spill Conference Proceedings 1991. pp. 177-179.\•U.S. Coast Guard On-Scene Coordinator's Report\•Washington State Department of Ecology, Nestucca Oil Spill On-Scene Coordinator's Report, August 1989.\•Yaroch, G.N. 1991. The Nestucca Major Oil Spill: A Christmas Story., Oil Spill Conference Proceedings 1991. pp. 263-266.

References: •Gundlach, E. and Marshall, M. 1990. The Physical Persistence of Spilled Oil: An Analysis of Oil Spills Previous to Exxon Valdez. Final Report. HAZMAT. OAD. NOAA. pp. 47-68. •Nestucca Oil Spill Report, Canadian Coast Guard, June 1989 •NOAA Response Report •Owens, E.H. 1991. Shoreline Evaluation Methods Developed During the Nestucca Response in British Columbia. Oil Spill Conference Proceedings 1991. pp. 177-179. •U.S. Coast Guard On-Scene Coordinator's Report •Washington State Department of Ecology, Nestucca Oil Spill On-Scene Coordinator's Report, August 1989. •Yaroch, G.N. 1991. The Nestucca Major Oil Spill: A Christmas Story., Oil Spill Conference Proceedings 1991. pp. 263-266.

Last Edit: 9/19/92