The federal government is spending $4.9 million to remove tons of heavy oil from a U.S. warship that sank off the coast of British Columbia nearly 80 years ago, but deterioration poses a “significant risk” of a major spill. It is occurring.
Fisheries Minister Diane Leboutilier announced the multi-million dollar contract in a news release on Thursday, under which U.S.-based salvage company Resolve Marine will clean up oil that has been gushing from the U.S. military transport ship since its sinking in 1946. Said to start.
The wreck of Commodore MG Zarinski is located near Pitt Island in the Grenville Strait, part of the Inside Passage shipping route that stretches from southern British Columbia to Alaska.
The ship was transporting military supplies and heavy oil from Seattle to Whittier, Alaska, when it struck shallow water and sank in a storm. All 48 crew members survived the sinking and were rescued by vessel operators in the area.
The transport vessel was sitting upside down on a rock ledge about 30 meters deep and had suffered from “numerous small oil leaks” over the years as its fuel tanks deteriorated, the British Columbia government said.
The Canadian Coast Guard launched its first brutal operation in 2013, removing all the large quantities of oil that were available at the time. Since then, the crew has returned to the wreck regularly to remove thousands of liters of oil as fuel moves inside the ship’s hull.
“Since then, the ship’s structure has continued to deteriorate and the previously inaccessible fuel tanks collapsed,” the Coast Guard said in a news release. “This new state of degradation poses a significant risk of releasing large amounts of oil into the marine environment.”
Geoff Brady, the Canadian Coast Guard’s marine environmental emergency response supervisor, estimates the ship was carrying 700,000 liters of oil and several tonnes of military cargo, including vehicles and ammunition, when it sank in the narrow channel. .
A technical assessment of the wreck was completed last summer, determining the integrity of the ship and the location of an estimated 27,000 liters of residual oil.
“The results raise some concerns about the rate of upwelling. We’re seeing oil coming to the surface, so we just really need to address that,” Brady said in an interview Thursday. said.
“There was so much uncertainty about the condition of the ship and some certainty about the amount of oil on board that it actually prompted the Coast Guard to launch this operation. ”
The salvage operation is expected to begin later this month and will take several weeks as workers use a process called “hot tapping” to attach drain valves and hoses to the ship’s hull and pump oil into the floating barge’s storage tanks. It takes.
The Coast Guard said it was able to remove about 60 tons of fuel from the ship using the same method. MV Shedik It sank off the coast of Vancouver Island in 2021.
“Due to the nature of the work, there is a slight risk of oil being released during the discharge,” according to the release. “Canadian Coast Guard personnel are on scene and ready to respond if necessary.”
The agency is completing the work in collaboration with Gitga’at and Gitchaara First Nations, which are supporting the marine response.
