Cleanup continues; officials say ship spilled fuel

  • Bo Petersen
  • Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Thursday, March 22, 2012 6:27 p.m.
  • Text size: A A A
Seth Martin of Folly Beach fishes Wednesday afternoon in the surf along a mostly deserted stretch of beach. An oil spill prompted the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to advise people to avoid going into the ocean.
GLENN SMITH/Seth Martin of Folly Beach fishes Wednesday afternoon in the surf along a mostly deserted stretch of beach. An oil spill prompted the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to advise people to avoid going into the ocean.

A ship at anchor spilled fuel near the mouth of Charleston Harbor this week, shortly before tarry black clumps of oil began showing up on Sullivan's Island beaches, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed.

A cleanup contractor already was at work Monday when a Coast Guard crew arrived at the cargo ship John F., said Lt. Commander Ryan Rhodes. The crew took samples, but it was too soon to say if the incident was related to the beach spill, he said.

Preliminary reports indicated the ship spilled 100 to 150 gallons of bunker oil.

"We're investigating that incident while we coordinate cleanup measures," he said.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard and emergency response cleanup crews on Wednesday were working on the beaches and in boats. They began shifting their focus from Sullivan's Island to

Folly Beach, following the drift of the spill. The Coast Guard asked people not to walk on the beach until it can be cleaned up to keep from spreading the oil.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control advised people to avoid the ocean water, marshes or inlets from about the lighthouse on Sullivan's Island to the Folly Beach pier.

"It's just precautionary. We have tar balls floating out there. We don't want folks walking or wading through it," said Christine Sanford-Coker, DHEC environmental quality control director for Region 7.

After surveying, the department did not close the shellfish beds behind the island.

Two long streams of oil sheen and three streams of sheen with clusters of small tar balls drifted south off Morris Island and Folly Beach on Wednesday, said Lt. Nathan Kendrick, a Coast Guard helicopter pilot. One of the patches with clusters of tar was moving toward Kiawah Island. The patches appeared to have come from two larger sheens spotted Tuesday off Sullivan's Island and Lighthouse Inlet between Morris Island and Folly Beach, he said.

"It's mostly sheen with a few tiny tar balls," he said. .

Only a few people braved the water at Folly Beach during the afternoon, but most folks on hand said that had nothing to do with the oil spill. For Suzie Goodwin of Bloomington, Ind., a toe-test of the water was enough to keep her on the sand. "It was just too cold to go in," she said.

Goodwin, like most people interviewed, had heard nothing about the DHEC warning. No signs were posted along the beach, and people seemed to know little about the spill. The water and beach appeared clean in most spots, though small black clumps of oil were scattered about the sand on the north end of Folly, across from the Morris Island lighthouse.

Folly Beach resident Seth Martin waded up to his knees as he monitored three fishing lines he'd cast into the surf. He usually keeps and eats about a quarter of the fish he catches. He decided that everything he caught Wednesday deserved a pass rather than risk an oily meal. That meant giving up a good-sized redfish he'd landed.

"He's definitely going back," he said, removing the hook. "That's all right. I'm out here for the fun anyway."

On Sullivan's Island, few people were out on the beach Wednesday afternoon, and no one was swimming.

"We've made huge progress today," said Patrick Ender, Coast Guard marine science chief, who estimated some 90 percent of the clumps had been cleaned off the front beach. On the inlet bend around Fort Moultrie where they worked Wednesday evening, "you might find one here, walk a few feet and find another."

Two recreational boaters told The Post and Courier on Wednesday that they'd seen the oil slick in the harbor on Monday.

Sharon Barnett, of Mount Pleasant, was sailing with friends on the Blue Horizon, a 42-foot cutter. They had sailed out to the jetties about 12:30 p.m. Monday and didn't see any oil on the way out, but on their return trip, they saw black waves and realized it was an oil slick. The slick was in the channel between buoys Green 15 and Green 17.

She called the Coast Guard about 2:30 p.m. "They thanked us for calling and acted like they were on it and had heard about and were going to deal with it, " she said.

Ross Heintzelman and Doug Allen, both of Charleston, had taken Heintzleman's 30-foot Morgan out in the harbor Monday, leaving the City Marina around 12:30 p.m. "We first smelled the oil and thought it might be coming from the boat," Allen said. "Then we saw this oil. It looked like it was coming from the cargo ship John F."

Heintzelman said the slick looked like it stretched from a buoy off Sullivan's Island to Fort Sumter, and it looked very large.