http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/oil-spill-expert-denies-coast-guard-claim-about-vancouver-fuel-leak/article24094846/
Oil spill expert denies Coast Guard's claim about Vancouver fuel leak
SUNNY DHILLON
VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Apr. 24 2015, 8:00 AM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Apr. 23 2015, 9:48 PM EDT
A U.S. oil spill expert says he never described the Canadian Coast
Guard’s response to a fuel leak on Vancouver’s English Bay as
“exceptional,” despite the Coast Guard’s claim.
In fact, Steven Candito, president of the National Response Corporation,
one of the largest oil-spill removal operations in the world, says the
Coast Guard’s response may have been too slow.
The fuel spill was reported around 5 p.m. on April 8 by a person on a
sailboat. The Coast Guard has said it did not recognize the seriousness
of the spill until 8 p.m. It has said a boom was secured around the
leaking vessel, the MV Marathassa, by 5:53 a.m.
The Coast Guard’s response has been criticized by Vancouver Mayor Gregor
Robertson, B.C. Premier Christy Clark, and some area residents. Mr.
Robertson has said it took too long for the boom to be put in place, and
has also taken issue with the fact the city wasn’t notified about the
spill for more than 12 hours after the original report.
The Coast Guard has vigorously defended its efforts. In a lengthy
statement April 12, Commissioner Jody Thomas said: “The Canadian Coast
Guard’s response to the Marathassa spill was exceptional by
international standards, a fact corroborated by a U.S. oil spill expert.”
The Twitter account for Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Pacific region
also referenced an unidentified U.S. oil spill expert. It initially said
the expert called the response “adequate.” It later said the expert
deemed the response “quick and effective.”
A request to the Canadian Coast Guard last week for more information on
the U.S. expert was referred to Transport Canada. A Transport Canada
spokeswoman then said the question should be redirected to the Coast
Guard. A Coast Guard spokesman this week identified Mr. Candito as the
expert.
Mr. Candito, in a phone interview, said he has not followed the
Vancouver spill very closely, though he did conduct an interview with
CBC on April 10. He said he was surprised his comments had been
referenced by the Coast Guard.
Mr. Candito noted that at the time of the CBC interview the Coast Guard
said the boom had been in place by midnight, a response he then
characterized as “fairly good.” The Coast Guard later revised the
containment time to just before 6 a.m., which Mr. Candito told The Globe
seemed slow for a spill that took place so close to a major city.
“It sounds like it took too long,” he said.
“… These are obviously very difficult things to evaluate if you don’t
have all the facts. In that context, yeah, I would say to get [the] boom
in the water around a vessel that’s berthed in a harbour like Vancouver
where there’s presumably a lot of resources, it shouldn’t take 12 hours,
right?”
Mr. Candito said the public is always concerned when a spill occurs, and
rightly so. But he said each spill is different and sometimes the public
outcry can go too far. He said mystery spills, in which neither the
source of the leak nor the material involved is immediately known, can
prove a challenge.
Frank Stanek, a Fisheries and Oceans Canada spokesperson, in an e-mail
Thursday said it still considers the Coast Guard’s response
“exceptional, as evidenced by the trace amounts of oil remaining on the
shores.”
The Coast Guard has said 80 per cent of the spill was recovered within
36 hours. Mr. Candito, when asked about that figure during the CBC
interview, said he would expect a better recovery rate in an enclosed
harbour but 80 per cent was still “very good.”
Mr. Stanek did not provide a response to a question about Mr. Candito
now indicating the response time may have been too slow.
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