Coast Guard: Oil in Beaufort hospital, marina spills ‘similar’

This story was updated June 3, 2016, to correct the source of a news release cited about the spill at Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

The oil found in the water at the Lady’s Island Marina is similar to the type of oil that leaked from Beaufort Memorial Hospital into the Beaufort River on Sunday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Chief Warrant Officer Dan Ferrell, who was supervising cleanup efforts at the marina Thursday afternoon, called the oil that stained the hulls of boats and blackened the reeds on Factory Creek’s banks “a heavier, more persistent type of oil.”

“We’re treating it as a separate incident at this point,” Ferrell said when asked about possible links between the oil at the marina and in the river near the hospital. But when asked if the oil at the marina had similar characteristics to oil No. 5 — the type of product a hospital spokesperson says spilled into the river Sunday — he replied: “It’s a heavier product, yes.”

The cleanup effort at the marina should wrap up Friday, Ferrell said. He estimated that 25 to 50 gallons of oil were found around the marina. Samples of that oil have been sent to the Coast Guard’s lab in Connecticut for testing. Results could come back within seven to 10 days, Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer Steve Lehman said, and should point to the source of the oil — the responsible party. Meanwhile, the investigation continues.

Late Thursday morning, a group of a half-dozen paddle boarders glided down Factory Creek as a team of Moran Environmental Recovery contractors cleaned the black oil slick from underneath the docks.

“They’re OK,” Ferrell said, when asked if the oil posed any danger to the group.

The Coast Guard has not received reports of wildlife being affected by the oil, he said. He gestured to the reeds on banks opposite the docks — some of the grass might be lost, he said, despite clean-up efforts.

Lehman said no bird habitats had been affected by the spill at the marina.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website states “heavy oils” are difficult to clean up and can have “severe impacts to waterfowl and fur-bearing mammals (coating and ingestion).” Long-term sediment contamination is also possible.

The Environmental Protection Agency classifies “No. 5 Fuel Oil” as a medium- to heavyweight material that is “difficult, if not impossible, to disperse.”

The Coast Guard lab will “fingerprint the oil so (it) can determine where it came from,” Lehman said, and “what kind of machinery was using it prior to it being found in the waterway.”

On Friday the Coast Guard will start the “vessel decontamination” process at the marina.

Boat owners were informed of the optional service at at meeting Wednesday night, Ferrell said. Participating boats will be towed to a nearby decontamination area and have their hulls wiped down with a citrus-based cleaner and pressure-washed with high-temperature water.

The service is free to boat owners since it is covered under the national Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, Ferrell said, explaining that the cleanup effort at the marina was a federal project.

He declined to comment on how much the overall cleanup effort cost, but did say spills involving heavier oils tended to be more expensive.

Hospital cleanup

“Beaufort Memorial Hospital has hired U.S. Waste Industries, Inc. of Walterboro, S.C., to contain the spill and perform decontamination procedures,” according to a news release from U.S. Waste Industries and shared with the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette by hospital spokesperson Terry Bergeron.

The cleanup is “ongoing,” the release said, “and the site will be monitored for the next 30 days.”

“This is an ongoing investigation at this time,” S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesperson Jim Beasley wrote in an email. “DHEC and the Coast Guard are working with the hospital to determine how the leak occurred.”

Bergeron and U.S. Waste Industries spokesperson Tim Odum declined to comment on the cost of the cleanup.

An estimated 290 gallons of oil leaked into the hospital’s boiler room on the facility’s bottom level May 23. The leak was believed contained and cleaned up by the next day, the hospital said.

After heavy rains Saturday night and Sunday morning, oil was found in the water near the back of the hospital by a nearby homeowner at about 9:30 a.m. The oil is believed to have settled in a drain and was flushed into the river by the rain, the hospital said in a post to its website.

The website references “officials” who say there is no threat to wildlife and that amount of oil leaked into the river is “small.” When asked via text message who those officials are, Bergeron declined to comment.

When asked if the oil was toxic — and if so, how toxic — Bergeron declined to comment.

This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 5:16 PM.