Cleanup is Tesoro payback for 1998 oil spill Tesoro Hawai’i has begun removing tons of net debris along 20 miles of coastline in east Kaua’i under a restoration plan for a 1998 oil spill off O’ahu that polluted water here.
Cleanup is Tesoro payback for 1998 oil spill
Tesoro Hawai’i has begun removing tons of net debris along 20 miles of coastline in east Kaua’i under a restoration plan for a 1998 oil spill off O’ahu that polluted water here.
Monitored by federal and state agencies, employees with Tesoro and two contractors, Clean Islands Council and Pacific Environmental Co., began removing nets Wednesday from beaches between Nawiliwili Harbor and Kilauea. The work is expected to be completed by Sunday.
The project will help keep beaches clean and remove debris that could harm marine life, officials said.
On Aug. 24, 1998, a hose failure at Tesoro’s single-point mooring at Barber’s Point on O’ahu led to a spill of 4,914 gallons of oil. Dead, oiled birds washed up on Kaua’i’s northeastern beaches, and oil washed ashore at Barking Sands, Polihale, Nukoli’i, Wailua and Kipu Kai.
At a cost of $2.5 million to the oil refinery and distributor Tesoro, the U.S. Coast Guard and private contractors performed the cleanup.
Tesoro reached an agreement on a restoration plan with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state’s departments of Health and Land and Natural Resources. A consent decree was filed in federal District Court in Honolulu last month.
For the Kaua’i cleanup, an aerial survey was conducted Monday to locate net debris, according to Dave Hoffman, a manager of environmental affairs with Tesoro.
Working in two groups, 12 people are picking up nets from the shoreline. Five others aboard a boat, including three divers, are picking up nets from beaches not accessible by roads, Hoffman said.
The workers are with the Clean Islands Council, a non-profit group on O’ahu that is funded by oil companies in Hawai’i and which responds to oil spills. Pacific Environmental Co., a subcontractor, Tesoro and federal and state agencies also are involved.
A boom truck will be used to put the debris into five trucks that will carry their loads to donated Matson containers at Nawiliwili Harbor, Hoffman said.
Nathan Hokama, a Tesoro spokesman, said four and a half tons of nets were collected by Thursday afternoon, and that three containers are expected to be filled.
The nets will be sent to Honolulu and then to recycling markets abroad to be melted down to make raincoats, Hoffman said.
Tesoro had the option of depositing the nets at the Kekaha landfill, but instead chose to recycle the nets.
“No one told us otherwise. We just felt it was the right thing to do,” Hoffman said.
Most of the nets picked up so far are for trawling, and they come from the Russian, Chinese, Japanese and American fisheries, Hoffman said.
Tesoro has agreed to spend $750,000 for the net cleanup, a bird predator control and bird restoration project at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife-managed Kilauea Lighthouse, and a water sampling project.
Tesoro also will set aside funds for use by Kaua’i County for the temporary closure of Kealia Beach and Fuji Beach in Wailua after the oil spill.
Monitoring the oil cleanup are John Naughton of NOAA, Don Heacock, a DLNR wildlife biologis, and Liz Valdez, a state health official.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
