WATCH: An independent review of a recent oil spill in Vancouver’s English Bay is making 25 recommendations as to how to improve oil spill response. The report, released this morning was commissioned by the Coast Guard after 27-hundred litres of bunker fuel spilled from a freighter in English Bay back in April. Jill Bennett has more on the story.
A nearly two-hour delay in initiating the response to the fuel spill in English Bay could have been avoided. That’s the conclusion of the independent report into the Coast Guard’s response to the spill released Friday morning.
The coast guard commissioned the independent review after the MV Marathassa, a Japanese-built ship on its maiden voyage to pick up grain from Vancouver, dumped about 2700 litres of bunker fuel into the bay in early April.
The organization has been criticized for its slow response with Vancouver’s mayor Gregor Robertson and city manager Penny Ballem questioning why it took 13 hours to be notified about the spill.
READ MORE: Oil spill response was lacking: Vancouver Mayor
The initial report of pollution in the water came in at 5 p.m. on April 8, but the coast guard did not have an oil-absorbing boom in place until midnight and did not alert the city until 6 a.m. the next day. The source of the leak was not confirmed until a few days later.
Former assistant Coast Guard commissioner John Butler was in charge of the report that came up with 25 recommendations to improve oil spill response in the future.
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The report does not cover how or why the oil ended up in the water. It also does not assign blame to any individual or organization as there is an ongoing Transport Canada investigation about the nature and cause of the spill.
In the report, Butler points out the operational response was successfully executed, but there is room for improvement.
“There was a delay of one hour and 49 minutes in initiating the response that could have been avoided,” he says. “The local governments needed to be informed earlier, so that the public could have been made aware of the incident. The on-site presence of Environment Canada would have provided valuable, independent scientific advice and leadership.”
Butler says there was a lack of understanding of roles and responsibilities in oil spill assessment and response by Coast Guard in Port Metro Vancouver and it was not initially clear who was leading in managing the initial response.
He says there were miscommunications between Port Metro Vancouver, the Coast Guard and WCMRC (the response organization) and “connectivity issues” between Port Metro Vancouver and the Coast Guard.
Butler says Coast Guard and its partners need to plan and exercise together, “so that everyone is clear about who is to do what and when.”
B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak says the province is committed to working with their partners to see that the recommendations are acted upon. The federal minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Gail Shea, says the implementation of all the recommendations made in the report is already in progress.
Coast Guard Commissioner Jody Thomas welcomed the report, saying she outlined an action plan for their full implementation.
To read the full report, timeline of the events and recommendations, go here.
WATCH: John Butler, lead reviewer of the Marathassa report, spoke today about the delay of initiating response to the oil spill in English Bay last April.
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