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Marine Corps Base Hawaii - On the morning of December 11, 2024, Marine Corps Base Hawaii’s Waterfront Operations (WFO) was alerted by the University of Hawaii about a sunken boat at Coconut Island. While primarily serving as an emergency response team for MCBH in the event of oil and hazardous fluid spills, WFO remains ready to assist the community.
“The boat was moored at University of Hawaii’s dock on Coconut Island. It sank overnight and was discovered in the morning leaking diesel fuel. That’s when we were called,” said Dave Carter, the spill response coordinator for MCBH.
In response to the leak, personnel from WFO were quickly mobilized and dispatched to the site to secure the area and contain environmental hazards using temporary floating barriers known as containment booms. Sorbent pads and sweeps were then used to absorb any fuel remaining in the water, keeping the situation in control, and minimizing the impact of the fuel leak on the environment.
“We have booms in three different locations on Coconut Island in case of situations like these,” said Carter. “Our crews responded within 15 minutes of the initial call, so while there was certainly a danger of creating an environmental issue, our response time and these measures that are in place definitely minimized that possibility.”
Following the containment efforts, Carter explained the next phases of the response: salvage teams from the state of Hawaii will lift the vessel from the water in order to assess the damage, remove the vessel’s fuel tank to prevent additional leakage, investigate the cause of the boat sinking, and prepare the vessel for repairs to ensure that it will be operational again once the issues are resolved.
Carter felt that WFO was prepared to provide immediate aid thanks to their continuous training.
“We conduct this training at MCBH once a week. Our usual response time for this sort of drill is 30 minutes, and we were able to cut that in half. We were happy to help the University of Hawaii.”
| Date Taken: | 12.11.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.18.2024 19:17 |
| Story ID: | 487870 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 24 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Readiness and Response: MCBH Waterfront Operations responds to diesel spill on Coconut Island, by LCpl Carlos Chavez-Flores, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
