It was a beautiful summer afternoon in Squamish on Friday, Aug. 4, 2006. The warm weather encouraged people to gather at the beach and venture out in Howe Sound.
But the tenor of the day was about to change.
At 2:24 p.m., while departing with the help of tugs from the Squamish Terminals in high winds, a 200-metre-long Norwegian vessel, the Westwood Anette, banged up hard against a metal dock piling and began to spill bunker C fuel oil.
To mark the 10-year anniversary since the event, The Squamish Chief has sifted through reams of documents local conservationist and researcher John Buchanan has amassed over the years since the spill, including media clippings, official reports, correspondence, accounts and images.
“I love taking pictures and documenting things,” he says of the accordion file full of information on the event.
Buchanan, a hobby historian, keeps many things, but he kept these files, it seems, because it changed his perspective.
Soon after the spill, Buchanan arrived on site and “there was nobody here and there was oil everywhere,” he recalled recently while boating along the shore of the Squamish Estuary.
“Before this Westwood Anette incident, I used to think that when there was an oil spill that we knew how to clean it up,” he said.
Ultimately, close to 30,000 litres of fuel oil spilled in to the nearby Squamish Estuary, according to reports.
By the next day, media photographs showed the spill stretching more than a kilometre into Howe Sound and the shore of the estuary blackened with the dense fuel. Dozens of birds were reportedly soaked in the oil.
The Squamish River Watershed Society’s Edith Tobe is hoping to do a scientific research study to see what impact the spill, if any, remains within the estuary.
“We did studies at the time and we basically have information from 2006… but then for various reasons, not from lack of trying, we weren’t given the support or green light to continue any studies,” Tobe said.
Recently, the society applied to Environment Canada for a grant to do a repeat of the original studies.
“And look at the concentration of the bunker C oil that still remains in the sediment and to evaluate the overall impacts and implications… of what is occurring there. Is it breaking down, is it becoming inert or is it still a factor?” Tobe said.
If the studies show the fuel is still a factor in the estuary, Tobe would put together a restoration plan for the area to clean what remains, she said. Tobe stressed the goal of the study is pure science, not pointing fingers at the various players involved in the incident and clean up at the time.
The lead agencies originally involved with the spill clean up were the federal Canadian Coast Guard, the Provincial Ministry of Environment and the Squamish Nation.
Coordinated by the Canadian Coast Guard, the beaches were closed in the area and campers were advised to stay clear of the water as far away as Porteau Cove. Provincial ministry employees and cleanup contractors were sent in to clean up the spill, but Squamish locals became increasingly frustrated by the pace of the work. The ship’s owners arranged to clean up the estuary further in June of 2007, according to a story in The Squamish Chief at the time.
What has changed
For its part, Squamish Terminals says safety and care for the environment are a priority for the company.
“Incidents such as this one involve many agencies working together to respond, including Western Canada Marine Response Corp., Coastguard, Pacific Pilotage Authority, Transport Canada, Ministry of the Environment, District of Squamish, First Nations, and others if required,” read an email from current Terminals’ president Kim Stegeman-Lowe. “In this particular case our role was limited to facilitating communications between the vessel owner, regulatory and response agencies, and the community. Following the incident, though, regulatory authorities conducted vessel navigation simulations and procedures for tugs navigating ships in and out of the terminal were reviewed and modified. The goal for all parties is continuous improvement and incident prevention.”
Michael Lowry, with Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC), a Transport Canada certified response organization, said there have been three important changes since 2006.
The biggest change came out of the 2013 Tanker Safety Expert Panel report’s 45 recommendations, Lowry said. The initiatives have included such things as modernizing the country’s marine navigation systems and establishing new area response planning partnerships.
The second important set of changes since 2006, according to Lowry, were in response to the Marathassa spill in English Bay last year. “The Canadian Coast Guard led the development of a Greater Vancouver Integrated Response Plan that is currently in a draft,” Lowry said in an email to The Chief.
The third change Lowry’s organization is working on is a Coastal Protection Program “that identifies coastal sensitivities and develops protection strategies for those areas.”
The strategies for Howe Sound and Squamish should be complete in 2017, he said. Mayor Patricia Heintzman told The Squamish Chief one of the most important lessons to be learned from the 2006 incident is for agencies to listen to those who know the area best.
“We have people who work in the estuary, who replant it, who study it,” she said. The knowledge of the “hired guns” who come into town after a crisis, should have their recommendations layered “with the local knowledge and understanding of a particular environment and with our capacity to regenerate it because we have a proven track record of replanting and regenerating estuaries,” she said.
The Squamish Nation did not reply to a request for comment for this story.
The Squamish Chief contacted the Ministry of Environment for a comment for this story and were told the person qualified to speak was away on work for the ministry.
The Squamish Chief gave a week’s extension, but no comment was sent.
*Please note a debrief on the spill is embedded above in this article.
Recent video from the Squamish Estuary
