S. Korean grain carrier blamed for B.C. oil spill
VANCOUVER — The cost of Wednesday’s oil spill in Vancouver’s English Bay will likely be borne by a South Korean bulk grain carrier on its maiden voyage.
Coast guard and Transport Canada officials confirmed Thursday that the Marathassa was the source of the spill, which coated the waters around English Bay with 2,700 litres of bunker fuel.
Transport Canada is now pulling samples of the oil from the ship as well as the water for further analysis as part of its investigation. As of Friday morning, about 80 per cent of the spill had been recovered by Western Canada Marine Response Corp., which was called out at 8 p.m. Wednesday to set up a boom around the ship.
Roger Girouard, assistant commissioner of the Coast Guard, said the grain carrier, which was sailing under a foreign flag, has been stripped of its insurance and may be held in port during the investigation.
Although Transport Canada said it believes the spill was unintentional, the ship will likely face charges under Canada’s “polluter pays” principle, which holds vessel owners responsible for such occurrences.
Girouard said the vessel’s crew at first denied there was a problem, which led to a “murky situation” in pinpointing the source and size of the spill.
“We expect the vessel company will now become part of the repair process. They are a responsible party,” he said. “That’s a much cleaner process than we were facing before with a mystery spill.”
Girouard said the costs are still being tallied, but the ship owner could be held liable for all efforts related to the cleanup. “We’re asking folks to keep track of their costs. This is a serious event but in the grand scheme, it’s not a major spill, fortunately. We’re just coming to grips now with the (cost).”
The coast guard said it could take days or weeks to clean up oil from the city’s beaches, and discouraged residents from doing “freelance cleanups” as that could do more harm than good to local wildlife and aquatic species.
Premier Christy Clark and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said they have concerns about the speed of the emergency response. They noted it took six hours to get the oil-absorbing boom around the ship.