Activist predicted petroleum barge disaster on BC coast

A little more than a year ago, B.C. activist Ingmar Lee told a reporter that the petroleum-hauling vessel Nathan E. Stewart was a “disaster waiting to happen.”

Early Wednesday morning, that fear was realized when the American-owned articulated tug and barge ran aground near Bella Bella. Although the barge was empty after dropping off its cargo in Alaska, the tugboat began leaking fuel into the water, threatening the traditional clam fisheries of the Heiltsuk First Nation. 

“It’s unfortunately a terrible thing to see it sunk there,” Lee said Thursday.

In an interview with The Province last year, Lee drew attention to a 2011 incident involving the same vessel. A series of 30-foot waves washed over the ship, causing it to lose power and be set adrift in rough Alaskan seas. In that case, the barge was carrying a load of 2.2 million gallons of diesel fuel, 1,028 gallons of aviation fuel and 700 gallons of other petroleum products.

A key complaint for activists has been that the Nathan E. Stewart was making its weekly trips using a waiver from the Pacific Pilotage Authority that exempted it from the requirement of having Canadian pilots on board.

That waiver has now been revoked, according to Capt. Kevin Obermeyer, president and CEO of the federal authority.

“I hate what’s happened, from a pilotage perspective. We’re all about looking after the environment, and so for us, this is kind of the worst case,” he said. “I certainly feel for all the people out there who have been affected. We will be taking a serious look at how we deal with this.”

Once it’s clear exactly what caused the grounding, Obermeyer plans to re-examine his authority’s procedures and regulations to determine if something needs to be changed. 

When Lee spoke with Postmedia on Thursday, he’d just returned from a trip out on the water to check the progress of the cleanup effort, which is being led by the Canadian Coast Guard.

“There’s still a considerable amount of diesel sheen on the water, there’s booms around the wreck, but they’re not containing the diesel. It’s very rough out there today,” he said. 

In Vancouver on Friday, B.C. Premier Christy Clark said she was disappointed by the federal government’s response to the fuel leak. She said resources on the B.C. coast are inadequate to handle current marine traffic — let alone the tanker traffic if pipelines from Alberta are approved.

“We need an increased coast guard presence, and British Columbia has been cheated by the federal government for decades now when they’ve been spending money on the east in terms of coast guard but not spending it on the west coast,” Clark said.

Spokespeople for the coast guard and Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not answer requests for a response to the premier’s comments.

Meanwhile, the federal NDP and indigenous groups are calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to act on his election pledge of an oil tanker moratorium along the north coast. 

First Nations need to be an integral part of that process, according to Kelly Russ, chair of the Coastal First Nations.

“To prevent another tragic event like this, the Heiltsuk First Nation must be a full partner in the inquiry to come into what went wrong, not just presenting evidence. This must include First Nations involvement in any future decision-making about ship traffic transiting territorial waters,” Russ said in a release.

In an email, a Transport Canada spokeswoman said consultations began in January on how to implement the moratorium. The Nathan E. Stewart isn’t subject to the ministry’s Voluntary Tanker Exclusion Zone, which bars large oil tankers from the Inside Passage. 

With a file from Rob Shaw

[Top photo: A tug and barge that carries petroleum products to and from Alaska through B.C.'s Inside Passage has run aground near Bella Bella. The Canadian Coast Guard confirms the Nathan E. Stewart, an articulated tug/barge owned by the Texas-based Kirby Corporation, ran aground at Edge Reef in Seaforth Channel just after 1 a.m. Thursday. The coast guard says the 287-foot long fuel barge was empty, but the 100-foot tug itself is leaking diesel fuel. People on the scene at noon said that the tug was half under water and on its way to sinking completely. MANDATORY PHOTO CREDIT: Norman Fox [PNG Merlin Archive] NORMAN FOX / PNG]