No oil reaches harbor in spill at Searsport

SEARSPORT – Emergency crews contained a 3,000-gallon oil spill at the Sprague Energy docks at Mack Point early Tuesday.

The spill occurred while workers were transferring No. 6 industrial fuel oil from the tanker Berthea to a holding tank on the shore.

Sprague is equipped to handle emergency spills, and in the case Tuesday everything worked as planned.

“Not even a single drop went in the water,” said Petty Officer Mike Mitchell of the U.S. Coast Guard’s marine safety office. “We were extremely pleased with the rapid response by Sprague. It was just a textbook example of how to respond to an emergency. They get a thumbs up from the Coast Guard.”

The spill was reported at 7:15 a.m. Mitchell said it was uncertain whether the incident was caused by a malfunction or human error. He said the spill was contained by the facility’s system of earthen berms that ring the tank storage area. The storage area is some distance from the water.

No. 6 oil is a heavy oil used to power boilers used in the paper industry, Mitchell said. He noted that the day’s cool temperatures converted the consistency of the already-thick oil to gel and kept it from spreading throughout the tank farm.

“It’s a very heavy product anyway and at these temperatures it was gel. It didn’t make too much of a mess at all,” Mitchell said.

Clean Harbors, a hazardous response firm, was on the scene with vacuum trucks within a matter of hours, according to Thomas Malek of the Department of Environmental Protection.

Malek said the recovered material would be taken to another area on site and shipped at a later date to an asphalt plant. “It will be recycled into asphalt,” said Malek.

Mitchell said that although it was raining during the recovery, there was no threat of contaminated water flowing into Searsport Harbor. He said the containment system has a series of valves and catchment areas for the express purpose of securing oil-tainted water and runoff.

“Sprague was quick to respond, and their response plan worked perfectly,” Mitchell said. “They informed the Coast Guard and DEP immediately. They did everything they were supposed to do.”

About the only government body that was left out of the process was the town of Searsport itself.

Town Manager Jerry Storey said he learned of the spill when contacted by the news media and that Fire Chief Derek Dunbar heard of the spill over commercial radio.

“I’m glad everything was secure but it begs the point that we should be made aware,” Storey said. “I think we can do a much better job in that area. A spill is bad any time but it is of special concern to a coastal community. We should have been notified.”