Subject: Boiling in oil
Date: May 20 17:09:18 1999
From: David Adams - skookum at nwlink.com


Tweeters all . . .

I am "venting", so read no further ye faint of heart.

Commencement Bay had another oil spill Wens. evening. A tug sank a few
hundred feet from the shore. a habitat restoration site and mud flats used
by my favorite (nearly albino) common loon and numerous other species.

After initiating spill response procedure with the US Coast Guard our local
fireboat showed up. Yep, that tug certainly did sink. Oil was reported
leaking to the surface.

This morning Coast Guard, Ecology, Fish and Wildlife, DNR all decided they
didn't really see much.

I'm looking at oil soaked geese, herons standing in a rainbow sheen, a beach
that reeks of hydrocarbons and that has a two foot wide stickly black racing
stripe punctuated with dead crabs along the tideline.

A minor spill not worth the trouble to boom or clean up.

I last saw that white common loon foraging near the tug. I wonder if he
sees the oil leaking. I wonder if I'll see him next week.


David Adams
Marineview Dr.
Tacoma, WA