At the end of Eight Mile Road in the Little Potato Slough of the San Joaquin Delta, a cluster of old ships, which stand tall on the horizon amid miles of crops, was topped Friday with a 10-story crane.
Contractors began the process of removing the 1940s military tugboat Mazapeta. The craft sank Sept. 4 with 1,600 gallons of diesel and engine oil onboard, which was soon contained by a rubberized floating boom.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, approximately 593 gallons of petroleum product have been recovered from inside the containment boom area to date.
On site through Wednesday is a unified command consisting of the Coast Guard, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response and the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.
Scuba divers started at dawn Friday, using water pressure to dig draw lines beneath the craft.
“They’re trying to get alignment of the boat so that they can pull the heavier rigging through that’s going to actually lift it,” said Zachary Strack of the Coast Guard’s National Strike Team. “So, they have to be able to cradle it under that mud.”
Once they attach it to the crane, they will slowly lift the ship, letting water drain out while vacuuming the diesel into a truck to take to a waste treatment facility. Then the ship will be turned over to the city of Stockton to tow out of the Delta.
“Ideally, in a perfect world,” said Jenna Brunetti of the Coast Guard. “Now, if we can’t get it to float again, we’ll have to load it on the barge and just barge it out. Either way, it’s getting out of here.”
A multi-million dollar mess
Since the sinking in September, the city of Stockton has closed its freshwater intake pump located near the area, according to the city’s public works department.
Andy Taylor, the environmental scientist assigned to watch the site for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said there has been little to no impact on habitats in the area and no oiled wildlife have been spotted.
“We have seen river otters in that area,” Taylor said. “They go swimming by and pop up to take a look at what’s going on. ”
Amid the cluster, there are a total of four ships. All of them are in the mud. Two sit above water and two have sunken.
The Sheriff’s Office can only remove private vessels and both the sunken ships are military craft. In an Oct. 23 meeting of the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Patrick Withrow estimated that removing the tugboat alone is going to cost the Coast Guard about $3 million to $4 million.
The cleanup is funded under the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, according to Levi Read with the Coast Guard. For every barrel of oil that is purchased, he said, 1 percent goes into a federal trust fund that is designed to clean up environmental impacts in areas where there is not a known owner or responsible party.
The two sunken vessels are both attached to the Aurora, a 293-foot ocean liner made in 1955.
‘Our problem child area’
The other ship above water is the Coast Guard Cutter Fir. It was the last lighthouse tender built specifically for the U.S. Lighthouse Service to resupply lighthouses and lightships and to service buoys. The Fir was built by the Moore Dry Dock Company in Oakland in 1939 and is one of the longest-serving vessels in the Coast Guard’s fleet. It was purchased by Melton McGuire, who is believed to have passed away.
The second sunken ship attached to the Aurora is a former Navy minesweeper.
“That thing’s probably twice the size as this tugboat, it sank maybe two, three years ago,” Brunetti said. It was leaking oil at first too.
“So, this is like our problem child area,” she said.
The leak from the minesweeper was stabilized by the Coast Guard back when it sank. Crews removed as much fuel as they could and then sealed up any holes. There are no current plans to remove it.
“It’s OK if there’s a sunken ship there, as long as it’s not polluting,” said Brunetti. She believes it was brought to the site by a drifter who abandoned it. “There’s only so much you can do.”
Water patrols Friday estimated the depth was around 25 feet in some areas, but the Delta bed has grown shallower in recent years and all four vessels are apparently stuck.
