Coast Guard containing oil at Goldstream Boathouse Marina after tugboat sinks

Coast Guard containing oil at Goldstream Boathouse Marina after tugboat sinks
CHEK
The Coast Guard deployed containment booms for a spill of hydraulic oil after a tugboat sank in the Goldstream Boathouse Marina. (CHEK News)

Containment booms are working to contain hydraulic oil at the Goldstream Boathouse Marina after an approximately 65 foot wooden tugboat that was permanently moored there sank on Tuesday.

The Canadian Coast Guard says they received the call that the live-aboard vessel had sank, and there was signs of pollution.

According to the marina, the fuel tanks were empty at the time and the visible oil at the surface was deemed to be hydraulic oil.

The owner and captain were not on board at the time and no one was injured.

The Malahat Nation and marina staff were first on scene, quickly putting absorbent boom around the area in order to protect the nearby sensitive Goldstream habitat.

When Coast Guard crews arrived they followed that up with rigid containment booms which they say seem to be working.

“The small amounts of oil that were slowly bubbling up were staying within that containment boom and we weren’t seeing oil outside that boom,” said Jeff Brady, superintendent for Coast Guard environmental response in Western Canada. “With the oil that was inside that boom were using absorbent material to recover it.”

Coast Guard deployed two helicopters to get a sense of how far the oil was going…the ‘Sea Island’ dive team from Richmond was also brought in.

Diving down and plugging fuel vents and also giving an assessment of how the vessel was sitting.

“We are working with the Malahat Nation and I just want to say a big thanks to them cause they were on scene near immediately,” Brady said.

In the next couple of days, it is expected contractors will be on scene to mobilize and recover the vessel and remove it from the marine environment.

At this time they are asking people to stay away from the marina.

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