Water vessels once again have full access to the Smith Canal following an oil spill in the state waterway late last week.
The U.S. Coast Guard announced Wednesday afternoon the hard boom, a device used to contain oil spills, deployed in the canal has been removed, allowing boats to once again move freely through the area.
State officials had briefly closed the canal over the weekend after hundreds of gallons of petroleum may have leaked into the water Friday.
An investigation into the spill is ongoing by state and federal agencies, U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Petty Officer Richard Yuranga told Stocktonia Wednesday afternoon.
It’s unclear what the next steps in the cleanup and investigation are, but the U.S. Coast Guard says “(federal) and state agencies are discussing response transition.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife was notified Friday that a petroleum spill had occurred in the state waters of Smith Canal.
Stockton Fire Department crews and the Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response initially responded to the canal and deployed booms to minimize environmental impacts.
The spill eventually prompted response from federal agencies. A unified command post with representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard, Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention, and Response and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established in a joint effort to contain and clean petroleum from Smith Canal and protect nearby waterways.
About a mile of the canal from Yosemite Lake at American Legion Park to Mission Road had been off limits to fishing activity Saturday amid cleanup and containment efforts. A safety zone had also been established for the entire canal.
However, waterway restrictions were loosened Sunday based “on current cleanup progress and assessment of the area.”
On Monday, U.S. Coast Guard officials said the spill was contained to a 1.5 mile stretch of the canal and a safety zone for marine traffic had been established on the waterway from Louis Park to Yosemite Lake while cleanup operations were ongoing.
Roughly 400 gallons of used sorbent, oily waste and floating debris have been removed from the canal, Coast Guard officials said Monday.
A sorbent boom is a tube-like, floating barrier made of materials that absorb oil, while a hard boom is a cylindrical floating piece of plastic that sits on top of the water and has a below-water, weighted skirt to help keep oil from going under the boom.
“The hard boom has been removed giving vessels full access to Smith Canal,” Coast Guard officials said Wednesday. “Only sorbent boom/pads remain in the vicinity of the discharge site.”
The source of the spill appears to be from an oil burner that had a potential maximum capacity of 380 gallons, though authorities have not yet specified how much oil had gone into the canal. The oil burner appeared to have been removed by Monday afternoon.
While the U.S. Coast Guard has previously said that there had been no reports of wildlife being impacted by the spill, dead fish and birds with oil stains on their feathers could be spotted from the banks of the canal on Monday.
However, Yuranga told Stocktonia Wednesday afternoon that it’s difficult to determine whether the birds and fish were impacted by Friday’s spill or oil that was already in the water or from another location.
While fishing in the canal and surrounding area is no longer prohibited, state officials have said waters in the Port of Stockton, including the Smith Canal, are contaminated by man-made chemicals unrelated to Friday’s oil spill and anything caught in the waterway should not be eaten.
People may report oiled wildlife to the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at (877) 823-6926.
Anyone with information about illegal pollution of state waters is also asked to call the CalTip 24-hour hotline at (888) 334-2258.