San Diego
About 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into San Diego Bay late Sunday when a Navy fuel supply line broke, officials reported.
The spill occurred about 8 p.m. at a fuel supply facility on Point Loma Submarine Base, when a supply pipe broke while the Navy oil carrier Kiwishiwi was being refueled, a Navy spokesman said.
Navy officials Monday were uncertain why the pipe broke.
Between 6,000 to 8,000 gallons of fuel poured from the supply line, but about 3,000 gallons flowed into a dam designed to catch leaking fuel and another 2,000 to 4,000 gallons was absorbed into the ground, said Chief Craig Huebler, a Navy spokesman.
Two fuel skimmers and other cleanup equipment had cleaned the diesel fuel from the bay by mid-afternoon, he said.
The Navy also sent a veterinarian to check on sea lions and other mammals in the area, including dolphins at a Navy research center nearby, and collected water samples to test for possible environmental damage, he said.
Initial Navy reports showed no damage to the mammals or the marine environment, Huebler said. State Fish and Game Department officials are investigating.
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