Sven
Seglare
Our stay at Dana Point Harbor on Saturday night was very strange 
We were in the guest slips, very nice and convenient. It took us a while to see where the slip numbers were posted (at the head of each slip, hidden by the boats in the slips) but once we found it we pulled in for what we expected to be a restful evening. (The times below are very approximate because I was not wearing a watch.)
At about 6:30 or 7 o'clock a catamaran tour operator ran down to his cat calling to the crew to check for any fuel leaks. We could smell something too, smelled like gasoline. The crew responded that no it couldn't be them because they only had diesel aboard.
After a while, when the sun set, the smell got really strong and pretty overwhelming. It got strong enough to make us feel almost queasy. At 8 or so I called the Harbor Master three or four times, with no reply, so I hailed the Harbor Patrol. The Harbor Patrol did answer and when I told them about what must be a spill they said we were the third callers already, almost as if to tell us that we needn't have bothered them. At this point we noticed a lot of commotion in a large sport fisher across the finger from us. There seemed to be 4-6 people running around spraying liquid on the water all over the place. I assume it was detergent or bilge cleaner. Another guy (or two ?) kept running ashore with buckets which were later draped with towels so you couldn't really see what was being carried.
At 9 or so Nancy walked over to the guy three slips from us to see what he thought of the goings on. He was about to call the local officials on phone when Nancy went over. His two kids were pretty animated about the "gross stink". Shortly after that I hailed the Harbor Patrol again to ask for an ETA of the ones who were going to investigate and that is when they finally pulled up in a patrol boat. When the patrol boat pulls up to the end of the dock most of the folks on Selene scurry ashore, leaving just one or two on board.
What happened next was equally strange. From what we overheard Selene had spilled a 25 (?!!) gallon tank into the bilge and were either intentionally or automatically pumping it overboard. I'm just about positive that it was gasoline, not diesel, and I know how well gasoline on water burns. No fire department showed up, no containment booms, just quiet discussions between two or three officers and the people who hadn't run away. The guy three slips from us went over and spent some time talking to the officers. The officers also spent time talking to the people on Selene, assuring them that they realized that they were not doing anything malicious but that they shouldn't "blah ... blah ... into the city sewers. One of the guys on Selene called someone else on the phone and made a big show of saying how SeaTow was going to charge them an arm and a leg, something like $200, to clean the bilge. If they were worried about a $200 charge from SeaTow to clean the bilge they probably hadn't been told about any fines or large pollution cleanup costs.
So, what the heck is the deal ? I thought even minor spills leaving a sheen on the surface were subject to large fines ? I would assume that a gasoline spill while it might be less polluting would be a lot more dangerous and possibly should have caused an evacuation or at least a fire engine on scene. Around Mission Bay there were large placards at the fuel dock about how using detergent to get rid of the evidence was subject to a $XX thousand fine. I am really mystified by the casual or even lack of response. I know that Dana Point Harbor has had pollution problems in the past attributed to dog droppings flushed into the water by active sprinkler use. Could that explain why they would not want additional EPA attention or is it more likely that the owner of Selene, even though it was in guest slip 28, was somehow a local with "friends" ?
I don't know if the pictures below will have enough color resolution to show what the spill looked like almost 12 hours later, but it should give some idea of how extensive it was, even after half a tide cycle. The stuff was everywhere in the western part of the western half of the harbor.
Very very strange.
-Sven
We were in the guest slips, very nice and convenient. It took us a while to see where the slip numbers were posted (at the head of each slip, hidden by the boats in the slips) but once we found it we pulled in for what we expected to be a restful evening. (The times below are very approximate because I was not wearing a watch.)
At about 6:30 or 7 o'clock a catamaran tour operator ran down to his cat calling to the crew to check for any fuel leaks. We could smell something too, smelled like gasoline. The crew responded that no it couldn't be them because they only had diesel aboard.
After a while, when the sun set, the smell got really strong and pretty overwhelming. It got strong enough to make us feel almost queasy. At 8 or so I called the Harbor Master three or four times, with no reply, so I hailed the Harbor Patrol. The Harbor Patrol did answer and when I told them about what must be a spill they said we were the third callers already, almost as if to tell us that we needn't have bothered them. At this point we noticed a lot of commotion in a large sport fisher across the finger from us. There seemed to be 4-6 people running around spraying liquid on the water all over the place. I assume it was detergent or bilge cleaner. Another guy (or two ?) kept running ashore with buckets which were later draped with towels so you couldn't really see what was being carried.
At 9 or so Nancy walked over to the guy three slips from us to see what he thought of the goings on. He was about to call the local officials on phone when Nancy went over. His two kids were pretty animated about the "gross stink". Shortly after that I hailed the Harbor Patrol again to ask for an ETA of the ones who were going to investigate and that is when they finally pulled up in a patrol boat. When the patrol boat pulls up to the end of the dock most of the folks on Selene scurry ashore, leaving just one or two on board.
What happened next was equally strange. From what we overheard Selene had spilled a 25 (?!!) gallon tank into the bilge and were either intentionally or automatically pumping it overboard. I'm just about positive that it was gasoline, not diesel, and I know how well gasoline on water burns. No fire department showed up, no containment booms, just quiet discussions between two or three officers and the people who hadn't run away. The guy three slips from us went over and spent some time talking to the officers. The officers also spent time talking to the people on Selene, assuring them that they realized that they were not doing anything malicious but that they shouldn't "blah ... blah ... into the city sewers. One of the guys on Selene called someone else on the phone and made a big show of saying how SeaTow was going to charge them an arm and a leg, something like $200, to clean the bilge. If they were worried about a $200 charge from SeaTow to clean the bilge they probably hadn't been told about any fines or large pollution cleanup costs.
So, what the heck is the deal ? I thought even minor spills leaving a sheen on the surface were subject to large fines ? I would assume that a gasoline spill while it might be less polluting would be a lot more dangerous and possibly should have caused an evacuation or at least a fire engine on scene. Around Mission Bay there were large placards at the fuel dock about how using detergent to get rid of the evidence was subject to a $XX thousand fine. I am really mystified by the casual or even lack of response. I know that Dana Point Harbor has had pollution problems in the past attributed to dog droppings flushed into the water by active sprinkler use. Could that explain why they would not want additional EPA attention or is it more likely that the owner of Selene, even though it was in guest slip 28, was somehow a local with "friends" ?
I don't know if the pictures below will have enough color resolution to show what the spill looked like almost 12 hours later, but it should give some idea of how extensive it was, even after half a tide cycle. The stuff was everywhere in the western part of the western half of the harbor.
Very very strange.
-Sven
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