Alaska

Sunken vessel releases oil, fuel into Kuskokwim River

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BETHEL, Alaska (KTUU) – A tug boat has sunk in the Kuskokwim River’s Steamboat Slough area near Bethel.

The 61.7-foot-long tug boat Frances Snow sank on Oct. 30 about 2.37 miles southeast of Bethel according to a situation report issued Wednesday by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC). On their website, owner Vitus Energy describes it as a “hybrid push boat/landing craft built to solve the many freight and fuel delivery challenges in the coastal and interior Western Alaska.”

The report states that a sheen was observed on the Kuskokwim River around 3 p.m. Monday by a member of the Bethel Search and Rescue team, and it was determined to be coming from the Steamboat Slough. Around 5:30 p.m. that evening, ADEC reported the sheen and a sunken vessel to the National Response Center and began to coordinate remediation efforts with the United States Coast Guard.

Evidence of contamination in the form of a silver and rainbow sheen was observed ADEC reports that an unknown amount of diesel fuel, engine oil, and hydraulic fluid was released into the waters of the river from the vessel with a maximum fuel capacity of 2,500 gallons. Vessel owner Vitus Energy estimates the Frances Snow was holding 250 to 300 gallons of diesel fuel and 10 gallons of hydraulic fluid at the time of its sinking.

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Absorbent booms were deployed to contain the fluids leaking from the vessel, and absorbent sweeps were towed through any areas of Steamboat Slough with noticeable contamination.

Vitus Energy reported the cause of the sinking to be a crack in the vessel’s hull on the starboard side, approximately an inch and a half in length.

Teams from the Department of Environmental Conservation, the United States Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Vitus Energy are working to remove the submerged vessel and contain the source of contamination.

The vessel will be hauled out at the Bethel City Dock, where it will also be assessed to determine the total amount of released fuel, oil and fluids.

While the incident does not delay deliveries of fuel to communities upriver, it does highlight the precariousness of fuel deliveries in remote areas or locations only accessible through waterways. A spokesman for Vitus Energy said that due to a shortage of qualified crew members, the costs of barge deliveries have “increased dramatically.”

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“While this incident does not raise costs to the region, overall costs related to our challenging environment must be passed on,” Justin Charon said. “We expect the delivery price in Western Alaska to increase 20% over the next few years.”

The spill occurred in an area of the river that is also within the boundaries of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge and in an area where the majority of land is under Alaska Native stewardship. ADEC reports most of the region’s waterfowl have migrated out of the region, making it unlikely that the animals would traverse contaminated water.

Subsistence hunters depend on the resources of the Kuskokwim, including an ample supply of chum, coho, Chinook, pink and sockeye salmon, whitefish, sheefish, lamprey and pike species. The subsistence fishing conducted at this time of year is usually done by setting gillnets for some whitefish and blackfish species, which may be affected by the spill.



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