An oil spill Sunday near Oahu that initially was reported to be floating toward Kaua’i instead is going in the opposite direction and breaking up, officials said Monday. A buoy tracking the slick’s course was 8.5 miles southwest of Barbers
An oil spill Sunday near Oahu that initially was reported to be floating toward Kaua’i instead is going in the opposite direction and breaking up, officials said Monday.
A buoy tracking the slick’s course was 8.5 miles southwest of Barbers Point yesterday morning, heading away from Kaua’i and Oahu.
The Associated Press reported earlier yesterday that, according to the state Department of Health, currents were moving the oil toward Kaua’i. A few hours later, however, spokespersons for the department and the Hawai’i Spill Center, a petroleum industry cooperative that monitors oil mishaps, said that information was incorrect but had no explanation for the conflicting reports.
Cleanup efforts and natural evaporation were removing the oil from the water, officials said, but the Coast Guard, the health department and Tesoro Hawai’i were monitoring the situation.
Officials said the oil leaked when a coupling on a hose between a Tesoro buoy and an oil tanker separated as crude oil from the Alaska North Slope was being transferred from the ship to an underwater pipeline.
The leak, totaling about 630 gallons, occurred at 7:15 a.m. Sunday, officials said. The oil was being unloaded from the Overseas Chicago for delivery to a Tesoro refinery at Barbers Point.
It was unknown whether the hose coupling failure was caused by human error, mechanical malfunction or some other factor.
“We don’t know yet why it happened. An investigation is continuing,” said Nathan Hokama, a spokesman for Tesoro.
Dispersants that break oil into droplets were sprayed on the sheen Sunday afternoon. In addition, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration reported the evaporation rate of the oil after 24 hours was 38 percent, according to officials.
Containment barriers (booms) and a skimmer were also used in cleanup efforts.
In information relayed by Tesoro and confirmed by the health department, there were no reports of wildlife or land affected by the oil spill. Representatives of the health department and Tesoro were checking Oahu beaches Monday and were joining the Coast Guard in flyovers of the slick.
The direction of the slick was good news for Kaua’i, where oil from a Tesoro spill in August 1998 reached several beaches. That spill, totaling 4,200 gallons, also occurred at the Tesoro mooring point about a mile from Barbers Point.
Editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and mailto:pjenkins@pulitzer.net
