THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290411
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OREGON INLET LENGTH: 55 lines
About 60 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from a charter boat moored in the harbor of this Outer Banks fishing center before dawn Wednesday, leaving a brownish sheen atop the water in about half the boat basin.
Coast Guard Master Chief Sash Griffin said the spill was small.
``It's unusual to have any fuel in the water,'' Griffin said from his Oregon Inlet station just behind the fishing center. ``But this one wasn't very bad. Diesel fuel doesn't have a high flammability like gasoline.
``The real effects from this are environmental. Problems occur when the fuel gets into small fish or crustaceans.''
Fishermen smelled the fuel when they got to the docks before daybreak.
And by the time the sun rose, they could see the oily sheen across the surface of the east side of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center's harbor.
Capt. Omie Tillett accepted responsibility for the accident after noticing a leak around a filter housing on his 53-foot boat, The Sportsman. The 67-year-old skipper fixed the leak before he left for the Atlantic with his charter party.
By 5:30 p.m., workers had cleaned up the entire area.
``We're like everybody else - we don't want that stuff out there,'' Oregon Inlet Fishing Center manager Satch Smith said. ``It wasn't anything intentional. I can assure you.
``I'm not going to say none got out of the creek. But we kept about 95 percent of it inside the basin. We'll bill the captain about $900 for the cleanup.''
Using a yellow, plastic containment boom about 300 feet long and 2 feet wide, fishing center employees and officials with the U.S. Coast Guard encircled the floating fuel. Fishing center workers then put 800 absorbent pads - each 16 by 16 inches - into the water, creating a mosaic of white floating squares. The pads soaked up the fuel. Workers wrung them out into a barrel. Both the pads and the diesel can be re-used.
``We'll transport the fuel residue to Oil Equipment Sales and Service in Norfolk, and they'll recycle it,'' Smith said. ``We'll keep the pads here to use again.''
National Park Service rangers, who oversee the fishing center for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, were on hand to observe the cleanup and direct traffic, if needed. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Workers spread oil-absorbing pads to soak up spilled diesel fuel at
the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center on Wednesday. Coast Guard Master
Chief Sash Griffin said the spill was small. ``This one wasn't very
bad. Diesel fuel doesn't have a high flammability like gasoline,''
Griffin said.
KEYWORDS: OIL SPILLS by CNB