Vancouver oil spill: Coast Guard defends cleanup response time

Afterwidespread criticismof its response, the Canadian Coast Guard has issued a detailed timeline outlining the sequence of events immediately following the detection of a major oil spill in Vancouver's English Bay.

Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas said, in a statement released Sunday,the agencywas first notified by a recreational boaterof a slick around the bulk graincarrier Marathassaat 5:10p.m. PT Wednesday.

The Canadian Coast Guard's response was exceptional by international standards.- Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas

Within four minutes the coast guard says ithad notified its emergency management partners whose job is to inform local shore-side authorities including municipal governments and First Nations.

At5:38 p.m. PT, the coast guardsaida harbour vessel for the Port of Vancouver had assessed the spillas minor and unrecoverable, but the coast guard's own assessment, an hour later, determinedthe spill was more serious.

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Thomas said the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation was tasked with the oil's cleanup andarrived on scene at 9:25 p.m. PT.

Contrary to criticism thatnothing was done until the next day, Thomas said crews went to work that night.

"Our partners carried out skimming in the dark and completed securing a boom around the vessel by 5:53 a.m PT. Even before most British Columbians woke up, the boom was completely surrounding the suspect vessel," she said.

"[Eighty]per cent of the spill was not only contained, but was recovered within 36 hours.The Canadian Coast Guard's response to the Marathassa spill was exceptional by international standards."

Communication breakdown, new oil

However, during a morning news conference, Assistant Commissioner Roger Girouard said that even though the coast guard sent out the proper notifications, there was a breakdown in communications.

"There were some human factors in a number of organizations where the relay of the intent of the alarm was not always received or passed on," he said. "I can tell you that the coast guard as an organization passed the message on. I can also tell you that the alarm bell did not particularly make it to the mayor of Vancouver."

Girouard declined to specify where the communication breakdown occurred, but said all agencies are reviewing the chain of events to come up witha simpler, faster notification systemthat would be more widely broadcast.

"We thought we had a sophisticated system in place. Something went awry," he said."We will fix it."

Girouardalso revealed the coast guard had discovered some new oil near the vessel.

The oil was likely either "flushed out of an outlet" or was washed by waves off a soiled boom,Girouard said.

Girouard said the oil was contained and there is no chance of it escaping or coming to shore. He said the old boom will todaybe replaced with a newone.

Cleanup on shoreline

He also disputed claimsfrom formerKitsilanoCoast Guard personnel that their old base, which was shut down by the federal government, would have provided a faster response.

"Kitsilano was never manned with environment response experts," Girouard said."Kitsilano, should it have been in place, would not have been called upon for environmental response in this scenario."

Girouardsaid the oil booms the base possessed were for containment of their own spills.

Cleanup over the next several days is nowfocused on the shoreline. The coast guard is still asking the public to stay away because the oil requires professional disposal.

He said there are still no signs of distress among marine mammals due to the spill.So far between 12 and 30 oil-coveredbirds have been rescued and treated.

Girouardasked people to reportoil-fouled birds and not try and help. He said if people approach birds,they could scare them back into the water, in effect "killing them with kindness."