Copied from castanets news service:
The Canadian Press - Mar 7 6:41 am
An oily rainbow-like sheen on the waters surrounding a diesel fuel spill off the north coast of Vancouver Island cannot be cleaned up, sparking fears among a nearby First Nation that relies on clam digging for food and economic security.
The thin layer of fuel, which covered a 5.5 kilometre radius at one point outside the salmon farm where the spill originated, has been deemed unrecoverable because it cannot be captured by skimmer vessels or sorbent materials, British Columbia's Environment Ministry said.
Fuel has made contact with some shorelines in the Burdwood Island group, a sensitive area teeming with clam beds that the Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis First Nation says are crucial to its economy.
"Would you put that sheen on your vegetable garden?" asked Bob Chamberlin, the nation's elected chief councillor. "They have no technology whatsoever to recover that sheen. That is utterly unacceptable."
A flyover on Monday showed that the sheen had been reduced in size to about 1.5 kilometres and represented about 70 litres of fuel, said Supt. Philip Murdock of the Canadian Coast Guard. He said authorities will now determine which beaches are affected and begin testing, including on shellfish.
Most of the area used by the First Nation for clam digging is closed due to biotoxin concerns that existed prior to the spill, but Chamberlin said he is concerned about long-term effects.
Cermaq Canada, which owns the farm in Echo Bay, about 70 kilometres from Port Hardy, said it "highly regrets" the incident.
Brock Thomson, Cermaq's regional production manager, said staff contacted the coast guard just after 5 a.m. Sunday once the spill was discovered. Employees deployed equipment on site and when it was light out they gathered as much gear as they could from other farms in the area, he said.
Thomson said staff were transferring fuel from one tank to another and left the nozzle unattended, which led to the release of the diesel.
"The long and short of it is the root cause of the release was human error," he said.
The federal Fisheries Department has said the pump was left on overnight.
Officials now estimate about 550 litres of fuel spilled, less than the 900 to 1,500 litres initially reported. Coast guard crews from Port Hardy were the first to respond and Cermaq has also contracted the Western Canada Marine Response Corp. to help with the cleanup.
Courtney Bransfield, emergency co-ordinator for the Mount Waddington Regional District, said all recoverable diesel was contained to the fish pens by Sunday afternoon. She said the sheen in the surrounding waters was unrecoverable but would eventually evaporate.