Federal, state and local pollution responders observe the scene around the sunken 38-foot vessel Charnade in theChinook Landing Marina. U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Sector Puget Sound.
SEATTLE — The Coast Guard opened the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund in response to a sunken vessel within the Chinook Landing Marina in Tacoma, Tuesday afternoon.
The partially sunken vessel is a 38-foot wood-hulled recreational vessel and has a maximum potential gasoline spill of 200 gallons.
The vessel reportedly sunk while moored at 6:30 a.m., Tuesday and was reported to the Coast Guard at 9:30 a.m. by the harbormaster at the marina. The owner of the vessel hired Global Diving and Salvage to conduct the salvage, but was unable to meet the cost. After conversing with the owner, personnel from the Incident Management Division at Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound opened federal funding of the cleanup and retained the services of Global Diving and Salvage.
“We are working with our state and local partners to mitigate this pollution threat as soon as possible,”said Petty Officer 2nd Class Valerie Van Tine, federal on scene pollution responder, from Sector Puget Sound Incident Management Division. “The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is there to use for this very purpose – to clean up spills that can’t be funded otherwise.”
Personnel from Tacoma Fire Department and Washington Department of Ecology also responded to clean up around the sunken vessel.
