Between 7,000 and 8,000 litres of diesel spilled at a fish farm near Zeballos, on Vancouver Island on Dec. 14.
The Environmental Emergency Branch received a report about a fuel spill near the fish farm. The incident occurred due to human error during a fuel transfer by Grieg Seafood. The fuel transfer operation was occurring on a floating concrete platform at the time.
According to an incident report from the province, Grieg and Strategic Natural Resource Consultants were on the water following the spill and deployed an absorbent boom around the spill site. However, Strategic, who is the Qualified Environmental Professional for the incident, reported that they were unable to find any recoverable diesel on the water.
A provincial team was deployed on Dec. 15, where they did on-water and aerial surveillance with representatives from Grieg Seafood and from Ehattesaht and Nuchatlaht First Nations.
"From those surveillances, visible sheen has been identified North and West towards Centre Island from the spill site. There is also smaller patches of observable sheen South and East towards Steamer Point," the provincial report says.
The province coordinated the response with Grieg Seafood, Strategic, the Canadian Coast Guard, representatives from the Villages of Zeballos and Tahsis, and Ehattesaht and Nuchatlaht First Nations. They will be setting up an Incident Command Post to help with coordination.
An advisory for boaters to avoid the area was sent out, and the Ehattesaht First Nation issued a clam harvesting alert and closure in the Zeballos Inlet.
Just over 36 hours after the spill, Ehattesaht Chief Simon John made a statement on the incident.
鈥淚 am sure I will get angry next but for right now I am sad that all of this fuel is out there sloshing around our territory, washing up on our beaches. It is clam season and our people should be out there digging on these low winter tides. We have done this forever and this year we have to close some beaches."
John's statement says that 40 people are working in the community and on the water to clean up the spill.
"Resources from Grieg, B.C.鈥檚 Ministry of Environment, the Coast Guard and DFO are here with specialized crews from Strategic Natural Resource Consultants and our Nation," it states. "As the title holders to these waters we are taking responsibility for these efforts and are setting up a coordination centre in the Nations office for the operational and environmental teams to meet and plan the day to day activities and build the long term recovery plan."
Due to higher tides in December, as well as cooler water temperatures, John said that the diesel can stay in the environment for longer and travel further. That, coupled with windstorms and complex tides means that it "can get mixed in ways that are difficult to deal with. While there is no time to have incidents like this, winter in Zeballos is even harder."
鈥淲e had a really high tide on Friday night with the full moon and it was pushed further up the beaches than normal with the storm surge that occurred,鈥� added Chief John. 鈥淚 think dealing with this will take a lot of creativity, hard work and some real resources.鈥�
Ehattesaht will be seeking more monitoring support, and will set up a rigorous testing protocol to help identify where the fuel is, and how it can be cleaned up.
Spills and industrial accidents like this are not new to Coastal Nations. Earlier this month a loading dock collapsed at a fish farm in Port Hardy. Another clean-up in the Zeballos Inlet was necessary in 2015 after a logging camp sunk in the area. The inlet also got international attention after a young whale calf was stranded in the inlet after its mother died.
"There is along legacy of abandoned cannery and forestry operations where spills or slow leaks have left lasting pollution in important ecosystems," John's statement says. "Today there continue to be many risks as people move fuel on and around the water and more often than not human error leads to incidents like what we are seeing in Zeballos Inlet."
鈥淥ur people use these beaches continually and we have for thousands of years. It is where we get our food. It is where we generate our lifestyle鈥� he added. 鈥淲e always know there are risks when there are activities but we must do better to prevent this type of accident.鈥�
"Ehattesaht will be sending out reminders to all operators in its territory who are handling fuel to ensure they are extra vigilant now," the statement ends. "Over the next while we will be asking for additional fail-safe measures to be put in place. This includes our own operations."
