A 65-year-old Fort Bragg man has pleaded guilty to spilling diesel fuel into the Pacific Ocean on June 12, the largest of about 25 Mendocino County incidents reported to the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response in 2011.
Much smaller drips, overflows and other spills in the pint-to-quart range often go unreported and could be a bigger ongoing issue in Noyo Harbor, said California Department of Fish and Game”s (DFG) Dennis McKiver.
Charles Baxman dumped what DFG Warden Joel Hendricks estimated to be at least 40 gallons of fuel, after Baxman took his sport fishing boat out beyond the jetty in an effort to avoid polluting the harbor.
Hendricks had contacted Baxman in the harbor and observed the boat”s floor to be full of diesel fuel, which had leaked due to mechanical problems. Hendricks advised Baxman to turn off all electronics and pump the oil into canisters for disposal.
Hendricks said Baxman complied, but some time after the warden left, Baxman started up the boat and drove it out of the harbor, trailing a sheen. People at the Cliff House restaurant and in Pomo Bluffs city park observed the oil spilling and the dumping outside the jetty and called it in, Hendricks said.
Baxman”s boat ran out of fuel due to the continuing leak and dumped diesel into the ocean just beyond the jetty. Hendricks didn”t know why Baxman had driven out for the dump when he had seemed ready to put the oil into containers.
“Charlie saw smoke coming from his boat and thought there could be a fire,” said his wife Heather, who appeared in court with him. “He panicked.”
Baxman, who took responsibility for the event from the beginning and appeared in court to plead guilty, was out of town and unavailable for comment.
“We are all sorry this happened; it was an accident,” said Heather Baxman.
Hendricks estimated the spill to be at least 40 gallons based on how it covered the bottom of the boat. Heather Baxman said it likely wasn”t that much.
Baxman pumped a lot of oil into containers after the boat was towed back into the harbor, Heather said.
A nearly-full drum of that oil is awaiting pickup by a hazmat service.
Baxman paid a small Coast Guard fine, will be on probation for 12 months and is awaiting the dollar amount for a Department of Fish and Game fine.
The unusual charge for dumping oil in the ocean noted in the weekly court report prompted calls to the Advocate-News.
Hendricks said the spill was the largest he has heard of in his past two years working in Noyo Harbor.
Statewide, the Office of Spill Prevention & Response gets about 3,200 reports per year, said spokeswoman Alexia Retallack. A review of their files showed three cases of sinking or leaking boats in Noyo Harbor, all involving much smaller amounts of fuel, none of which having a measurable long-term impact. Incidents on July 1 and Oct. 29 involved Coast Guard employing booms and some cleanup, which the Baxman incident did not because it happened in the ocean and involved quickly dispersing diesel.
Most of the two dozen cases in Mendocino County were for traffic accidents, electric transformer incidents, or reports that could not be confirmed. Fort Bragg cases included a softball stuck in a city sewer line causing a backup and a case in which the Fort Bragg Police Department discovered a motorhome operator emptying sewage into a storm sewer.
Any spill of toxins, oil, sewage, or other pollutants must be reported whether on land or near water, no matter how small, Retallack said. Reports of sewage spills go to State Water Quality officials, while DFG gets reports of petroleum spills.
The only time the Office of Spill Prevention & Response sent a team to Noyo Harbor this year was in March after the tsunami, but the damage there wasn”t as bad as initially feared.
Diesel is considered among the most toxic of petroleum products to marine life, killing seaweed, fish, invertebrates and plankton on contact. However, diesel disperses very quickly and as a result rarely kills wildlife directly. Unlike crude oil, it does not sink and contaminate the ocean floor, fact sheets found on the Office of Spill Prevention”s website state. Thus, cleanup responses of diesel in the ocean are rare, even for incidents 10 times bigger than the Baxman spill. Single larger spills are not as toxic to the environment as the persistent smaller spills that happen in many harbors.
McKiver said larger spills, mostly after boats sink, are rare. Small spills in the harbor add up and contribute more to water pollution over the long-term, he said.
The problem of small spills got worse after the fuel dock at Fort Bragg Marine closed last year, as it was no longer profitable or viable for the owners to run. There is another fuel dock at Dolphin Isle Marina, but larger boats can”t go that far up Noyo River.
“We do need a community fuel dock,” said McKiver.
To make matters worse, inexperienced operators, often with just a tank and pickup truck had been delivering fuel at times, McKiver said.
Stronger DFG regulations on fuel delivery went into effect last year that require permitting and subject deliveries of petroleum products to boats to regulations.
Now, Fort Bragg”s two local companies, Walsh Oil and Mendocino Coast Petroleum Products (Union Oil), are thought to be the only ones delivering gas and diesel fuel to boats, which DFG officials say has improved the situation, as both companies have good records of following all the rules.
Dave Smith, of Union Oil, says the new regulations are extensive, especially after being tightened up last year.
Has his company had any spills?
“Nothing to speak of. We try to be very careful,” Smith said.
Smith said Union Oil drivers follow strict protocols and stay with the truck, meaning the hose is extended to a fisherman or other boat owner to fill the tank. If that person isn”t as careful as he or she should be, a drip or small spill can happen.
“These tanks are not as easy to fill as the tank on your car. The fuel has to be fed more slowly as they are not vented like a car tank,” said Smith.
Boat owners often bring their own cans from a local filling station, which can create more small spills.
The Coast Guard and California Department of Boating and Waterways (www.dbw.ca.gov) both offer educational programs for boat owners. In other harbors, the Coast Guard has take action to crack down when little oil spills are adding up to a bigger water quality problem. With so little fishing over the past several years, that hasn”t been an issue.
The small boat launch, at the south end of South Noyo Harbor, often reeks of fuel and small sheens can often be seen there, although not on the larger and more used boat launch just past the marina.
McKiver said another way small spills could be reduced would be to require manufacturers of boats to vent overflows back into the boat, not the waterway.
“Of course, that would require action by the Legislature,” McKiver said.
Spills can be reported to 1-800-852-7550.
