Vessel 'accidentally discharged' 500 gallons of diesel fuel off Northern California coast, Coast Guard says

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN

Published 4:31 PM EDT, Sat March 16, 2024


CNN — A US Coast Guard vessel “accidentally discharged” about 500 gallons of diesel fuel off the coast of Northern California, District 11 of the military branch said in a news release. The Coast Guard Cutter Alder, a 225-foot buoy tender, was on its way to Humboldt Bay Friday morning while the vessel was about 30 miles offshore from the town of Fort Bragg, the release said.

Coast Guard officials said they are investigating and “evaluating potential impacts to sensitive sites” but do not expect the shoreline to be affected. “Our priority is to protect the environment and prevent any future incidents,” said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Andrew Sugimoto, commander of District 11.

CNN contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to ask if the department would be involved in any cleanup efforts.

The spill follows an incident off Southern California’s coast last week in which about 85 gallons of what appeared to be “lightly weathered crude oil” was found off the coast of Huntington Beach.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/16/us/coast-guard-california-diesel-fuel-discharged-trnd/index.html

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin'

[TeamProg]

2. Humans aren't worthy of this beautiful planet. nt

[republianmushroom]

3. Agree

[former9thward]

4. 500 gallons in the ocean can't even be measured it is so small.

The ocean is full of bacteria that eat oil. The oil would be eaten before anyone could clean it up.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Since oil floats on water

the obvious danger, depending on how close to shore it is, are the tides that can eventually push it to the shore. The fact that this happened adjacent to northern CA means that the water temps are much colder than say, the Gulf of Mexico, so that often limits bacteria reproduction enough to take care of the problem. A mitigation in this case is the distance from the coast.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK562898/

[former9thward]

6. The response from NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration.

These bacteria are nature's way of removing oil that ends up in the ocean, whether the oil is there because of oil spills or natural oil seeps. Those of us in the oil spill response community call this biological process of removing oil "biodegradation."

What Whets Their Oily Appetites?

Communities of oil-eating bacteria are naturally present throughout the world's oceans, in places as different as the warm waters of the Persian Gulf and the Arctic conditions of the Chukchi Sea north of Alaska.

Each community of bacteria is specially adapted for the environment where it is living, and studies have found that bacteria consume oil most quickly when they are kept in conditions similar to their natural environments. So that means that if you took Arctic bacteria and brought them to an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, they would not eat the oil as quickly as the bacteria that are already living in the Gulf. You would get the same result in the reverse case, with the Arctic bacteria beating out the Gulf bacteria at an oil spill in Alaska.

https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/who-thinks-crude-oil-delicious-these-ocean-microbes-do.html#:~:text=Communities%20of%20oil-eating%20bacteria%20are%20naturally%20present%20throughout,conditions%20of%20the%20Chukchi%20Sea%20north%20of%20Alaska.

Seriously, 500 gallons is an incredibly small amount.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Remember I have a B.S. in Chemistry

The issue in the link I provided from NIH, is that there are MANY factors including type of volatile (hydrocarbon chain), amount of ocean agitation, and type of bacteria (there are thousands of species that operate in different ocean environments, with temp and even salinity being a factor of what thrives).

Since they know the source (a Coast Guard ship), they can try to put a boom around the spill, vacuum up what they can, and hope for a lot of it to evaporate while keeping it contained).

[ificandream]

7. Full Coast Guard press release

https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/3709035/coast-guard-cutter-accidentally-discharges-approximately-500-gallons-of-diesel/

ALAMEDA, Calif. — The Coast Guard Cutter Alder, a 225-foot buoy tender, homeported in San Francisco, accidentally discharged approximately 500 gallons of diesel fuel 30 miles offshore of Fort Bragg, Friday morning.

Alder was enroute to Humboldt Bay when the incident occurred. Members of Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Incident Management Division have notified interagency stakeholders and are investigating the oil spill and cause. They are also evaluating potential impacts to sensitive sites. There are currently no anticipated shoreline impacts at this time.

“We are investigating the incident and are working diligently to minimize any potential environmental impacts,” said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Andrew Sugimoto, commander, District Eleven. “Our priority is to protect the environment and prevent any future incidents.”

Please contact Chief Petty Officer Levi Read, District 11 assistant public affairs officer at [e-mail] or 510-772-8865 for additional information.