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Container ship runs aground in thick fog Group opposed to jet fuel on Fraser River says incident at Steveston Bend is a stark warning BY ALAN CAMPBELL
acampbell@richmond-news.com
The grounding near Steveston of a giant, ocean-going container vessel has called into question the safety of barging aviation fuel on the Fraser River. The 220-metre, 38,000-ton ship ran aground during Saturday night’s thick fog at the “Steveston Bend,” just west of Garry Point. The vessel — the German owned Cap Blanche, which is registered in Antigua and Barbuda in the West Indies — was in the correct channel and under the command of an experienced Fraser River pilot at the time it ran aground at 10 p.m. There was no damage to the vessel or its cargo and the pilot managed to maneuver the ship out of “the mud” within 35 minutes, according to the Pacific Pilotage Authority’s CEO Kevin Obermeyer. Obermeyer, while explaining it’s most likely the vessel hit a “sand wave,” a large ridge or hump that forms in the river’s estuary, said a “soft grounding” like this hasn’t happened in the Fraser for many years. Although there were no repercussions from Saturday’s grounding, the incident is a “perfect example” of the concerns protest group VAPOR has been voicing for years about an VAFFC’s (airline consortium) plans to barge jet fuel on the south arm of the river. “Despite all the assurances, all the technology, all the tugboats and experienced pilots that VAFFC say they will have; if there’s equipment and people involved, then accidents will happen,” said VAPOR’s Otto Langer, a retired federal fisheries biologist, who’s warned of catastrophic consequences for the river if a major fuel spill occurred. “That’s exactly why there should be a precautionary approach to certain activities in certain areas and this is precisely what we’ve been talking about for years. “This is yet another warning.” The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) is now looking into whether to launch a full probe into the grounding. Paulo Ekkebus, a TSB investigator, told the News that data will be collected and an assessment of the situation will be
IMAGES SUBMITTED BY TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
The Cap Blanche container ship, left, which ran aground near Steveston on Saturday night during zero visibility. Above, the yellow pin on the TSB map indicates where the ship stopped near Steveston Bend, just west of Garry Point.
carried out before even deciding to investigate. that, if conditions were clear, the pilot would have known In an emailed statement, VAFFC’s project director, Adrian exactly where he was steering, as “leading lights tell you Pollard, said, with respect to his fuel delivery plan, that veswhere the dead centre of the channel is. sels will be in the hands of experienced river pilots and will “On this occasion, the pilot was relying solely on elec“navigate to our terminal within the rules and guidelines set tronic aids.” by Port Metro Vancouver. The incident was “very rare in the Fraser River,” explained “Our terminal will follow best practices in emergency pre- Obermeyer. “I’d have to go back many years for something paredness and response, including the deployment of response like this to have happened and, if I recall, that incident was vessels during all vessel movements to also in thick fog.” be able to respond quickly to any sort Asked if the incident is likely of incident.” to affect the way his pilots naviPacific Pilotage, a government gate the Fraser River in the future, entity whose marine pilots board vesObermeyer said it would depend on sels bound for or leaving B.C.’s coastal the TSB’s report. waters, had a pilot in command during “It might be an anomaly when Saturday night’s incident. the vessel was maybe turning very — Kevin Obermeyer “It’s important to know that the vesquickly, but we might end up doing sel was in the channel,” said Pacific something differently,” he said. Pilotage’s Obermeyer. “What we have to remember is that the channel is a three “He appears to have hit a ‘high spot,’ which is sand waves dimensional environment which keeps on changing and we’re that form. They are ridges and humps. Pilots get updated regalways having to adjust to it; our pilots do a magnificent job.” ularly about them and they do restrict the channel somewhat. The B.C. government has already issued an environmental “You’ve got these large vessels that don’t follow on rails certificate to VAFFC’s plan, which is now awaiting a permit and you do the best you possibly can; but the best wasn’t from Port Metro Vancouver (PMV). good enough this time.” PMV was asked if Saturday’s grounding would figure in The fog was “probably a factor,” said Obermeyer, adding its permit decision, but it didn’t respond by press time.
“What we have to remember is that the channel is a three dimensional environment which keeps on changing.”
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