Tests on Sheen Near Exxon Valdez Planned; No Legal Action Seen

A bluish sheen that appeared near the Exxon Valdez Tuesday as it entered a dry dock will be tested and investigated, but probably won’t trigger legal action by federal or state agencies that have the power to hold Exxon Shipping Co. liable, Coast Guard and state officials said.

The light sheen was sighted between the ship and a pier shortly after 5:30 p.m. as eight tugboats guided the crippled tanker into a repair dock at the National Steel & Shipbuilding Co. Pollution response boats quickly deployed booms to contain the sheen and collected samples before cleaning it up, said Nassco officials.

Another sheen was discovered Wednesday morning, when Nassco workers opened a containment boom deployed around the dock’s entrance and saw the material on the surface of the water within the boom.

That sheen dissipated before samples could be collected, officials said.

Tests Planned

The Coast Guard said it will test samples from Tuesday’s sheen or analyze tests conducted by Exxon laboratories to determine what the substance was and whether the Valdez was responsible.

“Either it came from the Valdez, or more likely, it was churned up from the bottom by the action of the tugs,” said Coast Guard Lt. Larry Solberg. “It was relatively minor.”

Nassco officials said bay waters around the shipyard contain oil and fuel, which could have been stirred from the bottom during docking.

“It’s not uncommon to see sheens in the bay, when you consider all of the ship traffic,” said Al Lutter, a senior vice president at Nassco.

But officials acknowledged that the bluish sheen was similar to discharges sporadically burped from the Valdez as it sat offshore San Diego for three weeks. Tests of such discharges showed they contained large amounts of organic matter and “traces” of Alaskan North Slope crude oil, Solberg said.

Citation Possible

Still, if Coast Guard tests show the Valdez was the source of the sheen, Exxon could be cited by the agency for polluting bay waters, he said.

The Coast Guard already has linked two oily sheens to the Valdez. They were sighted as the ship sat off San Diego for three weeks.

“We tend to believe it came from the bottom of the bay. But if the ship did create a visible sheen, then we would have a pollution case against Exxon,” Solberg said. “What it will come down to, I don’t know, as far as the disposition of the case. It’s still under investigation.”

The state, too, could take action if the crippled tanker proved to be the source of Tuesday’s sheen. Under an agreement between the state and Exxon that allowed the ship into San Diego Bay last month, the oil company will be held liable for any oil pollution caused by the ship in state waters, which extend 3 miles from the coast.

Legal Action Unlikely

But state officials said Wednesday that legal action was unlikely, because the sheen was cleaned up quickly and didn’t appear to damage the bay.

“If they got it cleaned up, I doubt we’d pursue anything,” said Curt Taucher, a spokesman for the state Fish and Game Department, the lead state agency for enforcing the agreement. “But if impacts were suffered or were thought to have suffered, obviously we’d try to seek damages. I can’t imagine we’d get sloppy at this point.”

The executive officer of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Ladin Delaney, was at Nassco Tuesday night when the sheen was reported and was expected to investigate whether the Valdez polluted the waters. Delaney could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The Valdez was moved into the dry dock after sitting at a Nassco berth since July 30, when it was towed into San Diego Bay for repairs. The ship gradually had been raised about 12 feet out of the water at the berth, but no discharges or sheens had been sighted, officials said.

Pumping Began

Nassco workers Wednesday began pumping the water from the dock and ship onto barges, which will transfer it to an Exxon tanker for transport to a Northern California processing lab. Usually such water would go into the bay, but under the agreement between the state and Exxon, the water must be tested for contaminants and kept out of the bay, Lutter said.

After the dock and ship are drained, a process expected to take about 10 days, federal and state investigators will spend up to nine days inspecting the hull and assessing the extent of the damage.

Coast Guard inspectors in San Diego and a team of representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board, the state of Alaska, Exxon and Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., a consortium of oil companies that runs the trans-Alaskan pipeline, will investigate the damage.

Towed 2,200 Miles

The Valdez arrived off San Diego on July 10 after being towed 2,200 miles from Alaska, where it hit a reef and spilled 11 million gallons of oil along the pristine shoreline. But its entry into San Diego Bay was delayed by the discovery of steel plates that were jutting downward from its hull, as well as an 18-mile slick nearby.

The plates were eventually removed, and the state and Exxon reached their agreement to allow the ship into state waters.