Oil spill association lends a hand

The brigade of volunteers that springs into action when a boat goes down in local waters is noted for its ability to contain, control and clean up oil spills.

Members of the Islands Oil Spill Association have responded to nearly 350 mishaps and conducted, or assisted in, 71 cleanup projects involving pollution or fuel spills during its 15-year history.

But that’s only part of the story.

Nearly half of the 140-member team of IOSA volunteers is trained in the specialized recovery of wildlife that fall victim to potentially lethal encounters with bunker fuel or crude oil.

So, when 4,800 gallons of bunker fuel spilled into Puget Sound at the Chevron/Texaco facility at Point Wells on Dec. 31, IOSA got a call.

“Usually what you get right after a spill happens is a lot of people showing up and volunteering to help out, and that’s good,” said IOSA Director Julie Knight. “But handling wildlife coated in oil takes some degree of special training.”

While most islanders snuggled in front of their television to watch parades or college football games on New Year’s Day, Knight assembled a half-dozen IOSA wildlife responders. The team left the following day on a search and rescue mission in the Edmonds area. Members of the IOSA group joined other wildlife experts in combing the beaches on south Whidbey Island and public access areas north of Seattle. Fortunately, the mission ended with a lot of search and very little need for rescue, said Knight, who spend most of Friday enduring Puget Sound’s chilly winds and choppy waters.

“It was a really flukey thing,” she said of the combination of wind and currents that kept much of the sheen off the shore of the east side of the Sound. “We really didn’t see much oil. We had on all our safety gear and were prepared, but we really didn’t encounter it.”

The spill occurred during a fueling mishap involving a Foss Maritime tanker docked at the Wells Point facility. In addition to the 4,800 gallons that spilled in the water, another 12,000 gallons of bunker fuel leaked onto the tanker’s deck. Most of the sheen of oil followed a west-bound current and landed on the east shore of the Kitsap Peninsula. Shellfish beds of the Suquamish Tribe were hit the hardest, according to United States Coast Guard reports.

IOSA is governed by a 14-member board of directors and stays afloat through a mish-mash of private contributions, grants, contract fees and local county funds. For the past three years, San Juan County has contributed about $9,000 per year for maintenance of equipment that’s stationed locally.

IOSA member and Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center education director Shona Aitken was part of the team that surveyed public access points north of Seattle. Though no fuel was found on the shore, they kept watch for birds or mammals showing signs of injury or damaged from oil.

“One of the important things is to get dead or oily birds off the beach,” Aitken said. “If they’re left on the beach, predators will get them and then they’ll be affected too.”

Though initial reports noted 50-100 birds were injured immediately after the spill, Knight said few were found in the days that followed. Most of the sheen had been dissolved or diluted by Sunday. She expects the number of casualties to remain small.

“I think the number will be small, if there’s any at all,” Knight said.

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