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Cleanup Progress Report - August 2006

Update information:  Contractors have completed the sheet pile wall around three sides of the Catala. This greatly enhances the ability to contain any oil that might escape from tanks remaining in the ship.

Related Information: A Community Meeting held in Ocean Shores during the evening of August 24th was well attend by interested and concerns local citizens. At this meeting, Ecology announced that the project may not be completed by the end of September due to additional work to completely surround the ship with sheet pile, and difficulty in rapidly removing sand, steel and water from the deeply buried stern tanks. If necessary, the sheet pile can be left over winter and the removalproject restarted next year. This would be timed to minimize disturbance to migratory and nesting birds.

DNR also announced their intention to secure funding to have the Catala hull completely removed from Damon Point.

Amount of oil recovered: As of August 25th, 31,000 gallons of oil and oily water have been removed from two of the five tanks on board the Catala.

Week 1: July 31 - August 3

Global Diving and Salvage, hired by the state, has cleared the laydown area of drift logs and is preparing the Catala site for equipment.
(Aug 3, 2006)

Contractor National Response Corporation has deployed hard boom around the Catala and into channel to protect the lagoon.
(Aug 3, 2006)

The crane is set up for driving sheet pile & pile placement is scheduled to start soon. Global Diving and Salvage has cleared vegetation and logs from top of the Catala.
(Aug 3, 2006)

Week 2: August 8 - 11

On August 9, sand erosion exposed a hole in the side of the shipwreck. The cleanup contractor suspended the sheet pile driving work for a couple of days after observing an oil sheen escaping into water inside the sheet pile.

The contractor brouth in vacuum trucks and crews to pump as much oil and water as possible prom two tanks, including the one with the newly revealed hole.

The plan is to draw the oil levels down to a point where oil cannot easily escape and patch any new holes that are discovered. As of about 3:30 p.m. August 9, contractors had pumped out 1,700 gallons of oily water fromt he Catala and the pumping continued.

This view taken near the ship's bow whows the steel wall (sheet pile) being placed around the wreck. a floating curtain, called containment boom, has been placed in the channel next to the Catala to prevent oil from escaping and spreading into a small lagoon during placement of the steel wall.
(Aug 08, 2006)

A large crane is used to place the steel wall around the Catala. The craine picks up individual pieces of 40 foot long sheet steel. The all segments are driven vertically into the sand.
(Aug 08, 2006)

Week 3: August 21 - 25

Aerial view of teh Catala. Photo courtesy of Ecology's Shorelands Program.

View of the Catala showing how sand and remaining steel decks need to be removed so workers can gain access to the oil tanks in the hull.
(Aug 19, 2006)

Worker coming out from one of the tanks in the Catala. Each tank needs to be scraped and steam cleaned to assure that there is no residual oil.
(Aug 19, 2006)

Pumping oil and oily water from No. 1 Fuel Oil Tank in the Catala.
(Aug 25, 2006)