Tugboat runs aground near Sitka, spilling an unknown amount of diesel

Fuel spilled out from a tugboat near Sitka on Monday after it ran aground following a collision with a freight barge, leaving a sheen extending roughly 4 nautical miles.

At about 2:55 a.m. Monday, a steering failure on the tugboat, the Western Mariner, caused it to collide with the freight barge, the Chichagof Provider, which in turn pushed the tugboat onto the beach, causing the diesel to spill out.

The two boats were heading south in Neva Strait, roughly 18 miles northwest of Sitka.

By Tuesday afternoon, a representative from the tugboat company said he believed they were able to stop the fuel from spilling.

“We believe we stopped any sort of pollutants coming out of it at this point, and we’re just focusing on getting the remaining fuel out and cleaning it up,” said Russell Shrewsbury, vice president and owner of Western Towboat Co, a tug and barge company based in Seattle.

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As of Tuesday afternoon, it was unclear how much fuel had spilled.

Engineers are working on a plan to get the boat off of the beach as well, Shrewsbury said. A dive and salvage crew from Hanson Maritime arrived at the site Monday morning, according to a report from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. An oil spill response vessel was also mobilized from Juneau, according to the report.

Rachael Krajewski, state on-scene coordinator for the incident, said that 3,000 gallons of unspilled fuel had been pumped out of the tug’s forward portside fuel tank, which was known to be leaking. That tank can hold as many as 13,000 gallons of fuel, though Krajewski said she didn’t know how full it was when the grounding occurred.

The divers and salvage company were able to almost fully empty that tank, and also plug fuel vents to prevent fuel from burping up if the boat were to shift.

Two layers of containment boom were in place by Tuesday, Krajewski said.

“By putting that out, it gives responders the opportunity to try to recover some of that fuel before it completely dissipates and becomes mobile,” she said.

Crews also ran a skimmer to suck up the oil to pull it off the surface of the water and added absorbent materials to recover some fuel, she said.

The freight barge was undamaged and remained afloat Monday, the report said. It was later taken to Sitka, Krajewski said.