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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Small Spill from Grounded Ship Contained
 Sandra Dibble - Union-Tribune
| | Alan Arce Espinoza, who is visiting his brother in Ensenada from San Ignacio in Baja California Sur, has been coming for several days to watch the progress of the salvaging of the 880 container ship APL Panama which went aground just south of the entrance to Ensenada, Baja California harbor on Christmas Day. (Union-Tribune) |
A small fuel spill this week from the grounded container vessel APL Panama was quickly controlled, and it appears to have caused no significant environmental damage, a Mexican official said yesterday morning.
Workers removed some 1,500 pounds of tainted sand from Conalep Beach, near a residential neighborhood south of the Ensenada port, said Ricardo Castellanos Percevault, the top official in Baja California for Mexico's environmental watchdog agency, Profepa.
The contamination occurred Sunday morning as salvage crews pumped water from a ballast tank that had been contaminated with fuel oil, said Jens Meier-Hedde, managing director of the company that owns the vessel, Mare Britannicum Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Co. A crack from an adjoining fuel tank had led to the contamination, Meier-Hedde said.
The vessel's ballast tanks take in and expel seawater to provide stability and buoyancy.
"It was noticed very soon, and the pumping was stopped," said Meier-Hedde, speaking from his office in Bremen, Germany. Workers from Titan Maritime LLC, a U.S.-based salvage company, "had booms on the stern and the bow of the ship, and immediately cleaned up the beach."
The majority of the fuel on the vessel – about 3,000 tons – was pumped out last week at the request of Mexican officials, who have feared that damage to the vessel could result in a leak.
The APL Panama ran aground shortly after 6 p.m. Dec. 25, and efforts to float it have been unsuccessful so far as surf and sand push it toward shore. As many as seven tugs pulling on its bow with more than 40,000 horsepower have moved it 20 degrees from shore, but not far enough to start pulling the 880-foot vessel toward open water.
Later this week, a barge fitted with powerful hydraulic pulling machines is expected to arrive in Ensenada to double the tugs' power. Meier-Hedde said the goal is to have the machines in place during high tides later this month.
Just how the APL Panama ran aground remains the subject of speculation in Ensenada, as little official information has been forthcoming. Port officials say they cannot discuss the case while it is under investigation by the Communications and Transportation Ministry.
Port officials say the vessel was scheduled to meet a pilot to guide it into port at 7 p.m. It ran aground nearly 50 minutes earlier, at 6:12 p.m.
Meier-Hedde agreed that the vessel, carrying cargo from Oakland, had arrived earlier than scheduled, but said the captain had called ahead.
"In my opinion, he was irritated that the pilot boat wasn't there, he proceeded very slowly ahead, and unfortunately went too far and touched ground," he said. " . . . He didn't realize that the water would become that shallow that soon." |
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