Coast Guard: Beaufort Memorial Hospital responsible for oil spill

The U.S. Coast Guard says Beaufort Memorial Hospital is responsible for the oil spill that fouled the waters of the Beaufort River and Factory Creek late last month.

Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Shannon Scaff said Thursday samples taken from the river behind the hospital and the creek near Lady’s Island Marina were tested and are “conclusive.”

“And what the lab results tell us,” Scaff said, “is that the hospital has been identified as the responsible party.” He later added that he’d been told the test was “100 percent accurate.”

The hospital will be responsible for clean up costs, the Coast Guard said, “but to what degree I’m not sure,” Scaff said.

“Today the Coast Guard notified the hospital that based on their investigation they believe the oil discovered at the Lady’s Island Marina on Factory Creek was related to the hospital’s oil leak reported by the hospital on May 29,” Beaufort Memorial Hospital spokesperson Courtney McDermott wrote in an email to The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette on Thursday afternoon.

“The hospital is waiting for an official report from the Coast Guard to include the lab analysis and the cost of repayment to the National Pollution Funds Center, which was responsible for the marina cleanup,” McDermott wrote.

Despite the Coast Guard report, hospital officials continue to minimize the spill’s impact.

The amount of oil spilled into the Beaufort River is “unknown,” according to the hospital’s website Thursday. “Initial indications from DHEC-certified U.S. Waste Industries were that the amount of fuel that leaked into the river was ‘small,’ ” the site said.

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 at the time. But oil was found in the Beaufort River near the facility on May 29. On the same day oil was found in Factory Creek near the marina.

The Coast Guard began cleanup efforts at the marina and began investigating the source of the oil. Initially the spills were treated as separate incidents, though a Coast Guard official said the type of oil found at the marina was similar to “No. 5 fuel oil,” the type of oil the hospital said leaked from its boilers.

When asked Thursday what type of oil was found at both sites, Scaff said it was “a petroleum-based product” and that he couldn’t get any more specific than that.

On Thursday afternoon, Coast Guard Lt. Jeff Prebeck estimated the amount of oil spilled into Factory Creek at 50 gallons.

The National Pollution Fund Center will coordinate with the hospital to determine cleanup costs, Scaff said.

He said it was the hospital’s responsibility to “make plans to affect the cleanup.”

When asked how much the environment had been impacted by the spill, Scaff said that was still being determined as the cleanup process continued.

He declined to comment on whether the hospital would face charges.

“What I will tell you from a Coast Guard standpoint is that we will continue to monitor cleanup efforts as the environment is a priority for us,” Scaff said.

“We’re not going to walk away from this”

This story was originally published June 16, 2016 at 8:52 AM with the headline "Coast Guard: Beaufort Memorial Hospital responsible for oil spill."