Remembering our oil spills legacy: Why Washington has an emergency response tug at Neah Bay

The March 24, 1989, Exxon Valdez oil spill was one of the worst vessel spills in history.
Eleven million gallons of crude oil spilled into Alaska’s Prince William Sound after the 987-foot oil tanker struck Bligh Reef. The toxic spill killed thousands of sea birds. Many marine animals also perished, including sea otters, orca whales, and bald eagles.

Just three months earlier, Washington experienced one of our worst-ever oil spills, fouling more than 100 miles of our Pacific Coast.

Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup worker, Aug. 8, 1989. 

Photo from CC BY-SA 2.0.

In heavy seas, the Nestucca – a 300-foot tank barge loaded with heavy fuel oil – snapped free from a tug’s tow line near the entrance to Grays Harbor. As the tug crew worked to come alongside to board the barge and reconnect the tow line, the tug hit the side of the barge hard, creating a hole that released 231,000 gallons of fuel oil over the next several days.

In the following months, the oil reached large sections of the western coast of Canada’s Vancouver Island. The spill killed tens of thousands of sea birds.

History is worth remembering

Catastrophic spills like these form the backdrop for Washington’s drive to maintain a strong spill prevention program. They are a large part of the reason why we’ve had a permanently stationed emergency response tug at Neah Bay for the last 19 years.

Washington’s drive for oil spill prevention continues today. The recently passed 2018 Strengthening Oil Transportation Safety Act requires us to take a variety of steps to promote the safety of marine transportation and protect the Salish Sea from oil spills. One of our tasks under the Act is to develop a report for the Legislature that will include recommendations about an emergency response system for Haro Strait, Boundary Pass and Rosario Strait, which could lead to a stronger safety net for Washington and the waters it shares with Canada.

In 2010, this 712-foot container ship Horizon Tacoma was inbound to Washington from Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and about three miles off Neah Bay when the crew noticed smoke coming from one of two turbochargers on the ship’s propulsion engine. To prevent engine damage, the ship’s engineer recommended that the captain shut down the engine. The state’s emergency response tug, Hunter, shown here, quickly responded and towed the ship to Tacoma, with assistance from an escort tug. Photo from Crowley Maritime Corp.

Emergency response tug is a safety net

The Emergency Response Towing Vessel (ERTV) at Neah Bay is a powerful, fully-equipped tug that stands ready around the clock to assist disabled vessels and barges off the Pacific coast or in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca. Vessels calling for the tug may have lost propulsion, lost steering, or suffered some other type of problem, leaving them vulnerable to running aground and spilling oil.

The tug’s mission is to get a line on any disabled vessels to keep them from grounding. The tug not only prevents shipwrecks, it protects our coast from oil spills, and helps keep our shipping lanes open, which are important to the regional and worldwide economy. The tug is a safety net for all vessels – for those that carry oil as a commodity and those that carry a large amount of fuel on board for transportation.

The birth of the emergency response tug

Washington leaders established the emergency rescue tug in 1999 and initially funded it during winter months only, when the winds and seas on our coast are most treacherous.

Neah Bay was chosen as a strategic home base because it is the marine transportation crossroads of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean. It’s the gateway to multiple Washington and Canadian ports, Naval Base Kitsap, which is one of the world’s largest naval complexes, and five Washington refineries.

Importantly, the location was chosen because there’s a lot at stake here – the cultural resources of the Makah Tribe, the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, the Olympic National Park, the Makah National Fish Hatchery, and Flattery Rocks National Wildlife Refuge.

By 2008, the Washington Legislature committed $3.6 million to fund a full-time, year-round tug to protect our waters.

In 2010, the Legislature decided that the vessels using the shipping lanes should pay for the safety net, so the tug program moved from being state funded to being funded by the industry. By this time, the state had paid for the tug for 11 years.

Today the tug is funded by commercial cargo, passenger vessels of 300 or more gross tons, and tank vessels that transit to or from Washington ports through the Strait of Juan de Fuca. All of these vessels are required to have oil spill contingency plans to prepare for possible spills. These contingency plans spell out the details on how and when to call the tug.

The Marine Exchange of Puget Sound, a local shipping cooperative, collects fees from the vessels and decides which tug company gets the contract. The tug company currently under contract is Foss Maritime.

Both Ecology and the U.S. Coast Guard can request a deployment of the emergency response tug if needed.

Did you know? 

Since 1999, the emergency response tug has been called out 67 times, mostly to escort partially disabled ships as a precaution, and sometimes to tow a vessel into port. Since the start of 2018, the tug Denise Foss has already been deployed three times.

• Jan. 31: Traveled 530 miles to tow the 961-foot container ship MV MOL Prestige, which lost propulsion after it suffered a fire west of British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Islands. 
• Feb. 22: Rescued a 656-foot bulk carrier Federal Iris, with more than 500,000 gallons of fuel onboard, after it suffered an engine room explosion 127 miles west of the mouth of the Columbia River. The tug got a tow line on the ship the next day. 
• On March 25: Deployed to assist the 958-foot bulk carrier MV HL Passion inbound for Canada that was having engine problems just north of Neah Bay. When the tug arrived, the crew had restarted the engine, but the tug stayed alongside and escorted the ship to Port Angeles.

Lots of oil moves through Washington

More than 20 billion gallons of oil is transported through Washington each year by vessel, pipeline, road and rail. We have one of the lowest oil spill rates because we have one of the most comprehensive spill prevention, preparedness, and response programs in the nation. Industry commitment and collaboration have helped us build a strong safety net.

We remain vigilant to prevent spills, in part, because we keep a close eye on the evolving nature of oil movement.

Find out more about the Neah Bay emergency response tug by visiting our website and our interactive map.

by Sandy Howard, Ecology communications

Protecting our great Columbia River

Bulk cargo ships at anchor in Astoria, Oregon. Photo courtesy of  Alex 
Butterfield, CC BY 2.0.

Was the mighty Columbia River created by volcanoes, floods and earthquakes, or was it created by Coyote, who according to tribal legend, realized that there were salmon in the ocean and that people needed to eat them?

Did Coyote stage a large battle with a great beaver, backing the beaver up into the Cascade Mountains, where the beaver tail scraped out the Columbia River Gorge? Is this what opened up a channel from the ocean to bring the salmon to the people?

This tribal legend told in oral tradition, taken from a Northwest Power and Conservation Council Columbia River history report, is just one example of the rich cultural lore associated with the river.

Today, the river is this and a whole lot more. It’s a vital shipping corridor that benefits both Washington and Oregon, and our regional and international economies.

Keeping an eye on vessel traffic

Here at the Department of Ecology, we are watching vessel traffic on the river with an eye to protect it from oil spills.

Each year, hundreds of oil-carrying vessels enter the Columbia River to deliver more than a billion gallons of gasoline, jet fuel, and other petroleum products to ports in Washington and Oregon.

Chemical tanker heading to sea from the mouth of the Columbia River. Photo 

courtesy of Bruce Fingerhood, CC BY 2.0.

The river is a busy corridor. Oil-carrying tankers and barges share space with cargo ships, passenger vessels, recreational boats, and fishing vessels.

A big oil spill could not only harm the river, its shorelines, and the fish and animals that depend on the Columbia’s waters, it could also impact both states’ economies. The river could be closed to vessels that deliver goods and services to communities along the river, interrupting the region’s export of grain and other farm products.

A spill could threaten both Washington’s and Oregon’s rich cultural and historic resources that lie along this vital corridor. Based on 2006 numbers, a large spill could cost Washington $10.8 billion and 165,147 jobs.

Many hands help keep the river safe from vessel mishaps. They include the Lower Columbia Region Harbor Safety committee, the Northwest Area Committee, the Sector Columbia River Area Maritime Security Committee, the Oregon Board of Maritime Pilots, and the U.S Coast Guard.

We recently worked with them all to complete a just-out report on Columbia River vessel traffic safety for the Washington Legislature.

A key finding is an obvious point – while the likelihood of a major oil spill on the Columbia River is low, the consequences are high to both Washington and Oregon.

Why we did the evaluation

As our energy picture changes, new oil-handling projects may come online that would increase the number of oil tankers transiting the river. Concerned about the potential increased risk of spills, the Washington Legislature directed us in 2015 to assess vessel traffic management and safety within and near the mouth of the Columbia River to determine:

• The need for tug escorts for vessels transporting oil as cargo
• Tug capabilities to ensure safe escort
• The highest level of protection that can be attained using technology, staffing, training, operational methods, while considering cost and achievability.

Spill prevention is a collaborative effort

Our evaluation showed us that the river has a robust set of safety standards already in place to reduce the risks of accidents and oil spills, but that more could be done to ensure we’re prepared should worst come to worst. Some of these safety measures are mandated by state and federal laws and regulations, while others are voluntary. For example, all tank vessels operating on the Columbia are required to have double hulls, reducing the likelihood of spills from collisions and groundings, but if tanker traffic increases, tug escorts could provide added protection to reduce oil spill risks.

Many partners participated as we conducted the evaluation, and together we generated a common framework for understanding oil spill risks and identifying potential risk reduction measures. A key recommendation in the report is that existing collaborative maritime safety programs are our best opportunity to prevent oil spills on the river and bar.

Keeping our spill prevention safety net strong

The safety evaluation is a valuable step in protecting both Washington and Oregon against future oil spills. The river is valuable and worthy of our attention. Just ask Coyote, the beaver, the salmon, and the people.

Read the full report online, access a brief focus sheet, and find additional information about our risk assessment work on our website.


By Sandy Howard, Spills Program