A fuel truck carrying 17,000 litres of diesel that fell off a barge and sank in the waters off the east coast of Vancouver Island has been recovered.
The truck was hoisted from the water Friday evening “with minimal fuel released during the lift,” the B.C. Environment Ministry said Monday.
The truck sank in water about 27 to 36 metres deep in Chancellor Channel, which contains a rockfish conservation area, in Johnstone Strait after it rolled off a barge on April 20 during a windstorm.
It was pulled to the surface, then crews drained the fuel from the truck into large holding tanks, to lighten the truck’s load before hoisting it off the water onto another barge.
Guy Adams, owner of Marine Link Transportation, which owns the barge and the truck, said investigators are continuing to determine how the truck ended up in the water.
“We still don’t know why the truck rolled off the barge,” he said. “We have a heavy-duty repair company looking to investigate the brakes on the truck on Wednesday.”
He estimates about 10 to 15 per cent of the fuel leaked out, but added it will take a couple of days for investigators to determine exactly how much fuel spilled.
The barge had departed Menzies Bay, north of Campbell River, and was en route to Hardwicke Island to supply fuel to a logging operator.
Responders from the coast guard, a marine spill-response company and First Nations arrived at the site the next morning, and using an underwater, remote-operated vehicle, spotted fuel leaking from one of the truck’s five tanks.
In a joint statement last week, the ministry, coast guard, Marine Link, and the Wei Wai Kum, We Wai Kai and K’ómoks First Nations described the leaks to be “intermittent and minimal.” Divers surveying the orientation of the truck made efforts to patch the leaks.
A containment boom around the location where the trunk had sunk remained on the site overnight as a precautionary measure.
Adams praised the coast guard for its response, along with the three First Nations whose traditional territory the incident occurred in.
“They were incredible in helping us identify the location, in monitoring the site for us to make sure safety measures were in place and that beaches were patrolled on a regular basis to see if there was any oil on the shoreline.”
