M1 AM Delaware River/Bay
Monday, 14 November 2005: 8:00 AM - 11:40 AM in Ballroom 1

(DEA-1118-176699) ATHOS I oil spill: meeting the challenge of spill response, investigation, salvage, and port management.

Sarubbi, Jonathan¹, Kegelman, Steven², Deal, Timothy¹, Laferriere, Roger ³, Gautier, Peter⁴, ¹ U. S. Coast Guard, Sector Delaware Bay, Philadelphia, PA, USA² The O'Brien's Group, Avon-By-The-Sea, NJ, USA³ U. S. Coast Guard, Atlantic Strike Team, Fort Dix, NJ, USA⁴ U. S. Coast Guard, Gulf Strike Team, Mobile, AL, USA

ABSTRACT- On 26 November 2004, the T/V ATHOS I struck a submerged object in the Delaware River transiting inbound to an asphalt refinery near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The object punctured two holes in the hull of the ATHOS I, which spilled approximately 265,000 gallons of crude oil. In addition to the common activities carried out in oil spills such as recovering floating oil and cleaning shoreline to mitigate impact to the environment, this spill involved a unique and challenging combination of factors such as vessel lightering and salvage, submerged oil detection and recovery, a complex investigation, waterways management, and mitigation of shipping and shoreside industry disruption, including the shut down of a nuclear power plant. This paper, written by key members of the responses' unified command organization, describes the resulting operation and investigation, which at its peak, involved over 1800 responders, 400 vessels and boats, and 120,000 feet of boom deployed to contain, control and clean up the spill. It specifically details the initial response, provides background information on the affected area, and discusses environmental protection and oil recovery efforts, port management issues, salvage, and investigation actions, and outlines the port community preparedness efforts which were crucial to the success of the response.

Key words: Delaware River