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Department of Ecology Press Release - December 12, 2005
05-296
OLYMPIA - Gig Harbor Fire Marshal Dick Bower will be honored tonight for efforts that shielded Gig Harbor from most of the impact of thousands of gallons of oil and fuel from a marina fire last summer.
Bower's initiative kept oil and oily debris from spreading outside the marina and saved more than $1 million in likely cleanup costs, according to estimates from the Spills Program of the state Department of Ecology. The agency's director, Jay Manning, will present the agency's Environmental Excellence Award to Bower at tonight's Gig Harbor City Council meeting.
"One of the worst things that can happen to our state waters is a toxic spill," Manning said. "When there's a spill, the best we can hope for is to minimize the damage. And that's exactly what happened the morning of Aug. 31, to almost textbook perfection. And it wouldn't have turned out that way if not for the efforts of one man: Dick Bowers."
Early this year, in the wake of a significant oil spill in Dalco Passage in October 2004, Bower recognized that Gig Harbor had little in the way of spill response resources and would have to rely on outside assistance in the event of a spill in nearby waters.
To address that, Bower worked with the city's stormwater manager to purchase 600 feet of oil containment boom. Then he approached Ecology, which funded the purchase of a trailer, anchors, ropes and buoys through a Coastal Protection Fund Grant and assisted with a boom deployment training exercise involving the Gig Harbor Community Development Department and the Police Department's Marine Services Unit. Lastly, Bower updated the city's Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan to address spills and coordination among Ecology, Pierce County Fire District #5, the Police Department, the Community Development Department, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
His efforts paid off dramatically in August, when an early morning marina fire destroyed 50 large boats and released several thousand gallons of fuel and oil into the harbor. One of the first notifications was to the Community Development Department to bring the boom trailer to the boat launch. The Police Department's Marine Services Unit deployed the boom within 30 minutes of the 911 call.
"If not for the local boom, it could have taken up to two hours before boom brought by NRC Environmental Services reached Gig Harbor, allowing the spread of fuel and oil," Manning said. "Instead, the spill was contained to the area immediately around the marina, far from the mouth of the harbor and well away from three sensitive creeks around the harbor."
The boom proved all the more vital because, at that hour, the morning tide was going out. If the fuel, oil and oil-soaked debris from the boats and marina hadn't been quickly contained by boom, it would have swept through Gig Harbor and into the Tacoma Narrows and Puget Sound. The resulting spread of oil and oily debris would have posed a greater threat to shorelines, fish and shore life and made the fuel and oil more difficult to recover.
"While the damage to boat owners was severe and costly, Ecology's conservative estimate is that the purchase and deployment of the $6,000 boom easily saved more than $1 million in cleanup costs that would have resulted from the spread of the fuel and oil," Manning said. "None of that would have been possible without Dick's singular vision and initiative. We can't stop accidents from happening, but with people like Dick Bower around we can minimize the damage they cause.
"I wish there were someone like him in every community around Puget Sound."
The Environmental Excellence Award is Ecology's highest award for recognizing efforts to protect the land, water, air, wildlife and public health in Washington State. The department issues the award infrequently, to individuals, businesses or organizations that have shown leadership, innovation or extraordinary service in protecting, improving or cleaning up the environment.
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Contact: Rick Manugian, public information officer, 360-407-6928
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
