| Diesel, Sex Toys and Suspect Bills Spilled at Cat Harbor |
| By: Ambrosia Sarabia | Friday, February 08, 2008 12:00:00 AM |
| Last updated: Thursday, February 21, 2008 1:09:00 PM |
Diesel slick covered 300 yards on water; boat debris, items of ‘explicitly sexual nature’ and suspected counterfeit currency littered the shoreline.
TWO HARBORS -- The often-heard phrase “nothing ever happens on this side of Catalina” proved to be untrue during the stormy weekend that began Friday, Jan. 25, when an 82-foot powerboat was involved in a bizarre accident. Harbor Patrol officers said it caused a diesel fuel spill and littered Catalina Harbor’s shoreline with boat debris and the former contents of the vessel -- including sex-related items and suspected counterfeit currency.
 | | | Photo by: Two Harbors Harbor Department | | Grounded -- After breaking free from a mooring, the 82-foot motoryacht Intrepid hit the rocks at Wells Beach on Jan. 25, and efforts continue to remove remaining oil and debris from Catalina Harbor and its shores. | | |
|
As it continued to rain in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 25, winds were blowing at 10 to 12 knots, with gusts up to 30 mph.
Harbor Patrol officers responded to a VHF radio call from a boater in a nearby anchored vessel at 3:08 a.m. that the 82-foot Intrepid had broken loose from its mooring and was drifting into the mooring field along the east side of Catalina Harbor, dragging a 30-foot sailboat behind it. The large motoryacht was heading
toward the rocks at Wells Beach, according to the Two Harbors incident report.
Harbor Patrol officers arrived on the scene to find the 82-footer aground on the rocks about 20 yards east of the Wells Beach pier, while the sailboat was discovered snagged on a work float.
After Harbor Patrol officers secured the scene at 4:17 a.m., the sailboat was tied up at the work float until the owner could be located and the vessel could be untangled. Another moored vessel in Cat Harbor was thought to have sustained minor damage in a collision with Intrepid as the 82-footer headed for the rocks.
Intrepid sustained major damage in its grounding, Harbor Patrol officers said. Pieces of the vessel were found drifting in the area and an initial diesel fuel slick of approximately 50 by 300 yards spread throughout the inner harbor.
“The smell of diesel oil was overwhelming in the harbor,” officers stated in the official incident report.
The smell, as well as a sheen on the water, was present in the area for two days, officials stated.
Harbormaster Doug Oudin told The Log that suspected counterfeit currency and personal effects of an “explicitly sexual nature” were among the debris field that began to cover the Cat Harbor shoreline after the boat hit the rocks and broke apart. Those items were delivered to a representative of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“Now we’re just watching the boat break apart and make a huge mess of both coves (Cat Harbor and Wells Beach),” Oudin explained. “The unfortunate part of the whole thing is that the person responsible for the boat -- purportedly the owner, but really just a caretaker -- has no money and no insurance, and the true owners cannot be found. So, there is nobody taking any responsibility.”
At press time, the boat’s hull below the waterline had broken apart, leaving only the upper superstructure intact. Oil and fluid discharge stopped, and Coast Guard personnel participated in a massive cleanup effort. However, debris from the vessel still must be removed from the inner harbor’s beaches, the incident report stated.
Harbor Patrol officers said James Warner, who was originally thought to be the vessel’s owner, is merely the person responsible for the boat but is not the owner. The vessel is registered to a company called LAsex.com.
Lt. j.g. Andrew Munoz, of Coast Guard Public Affairs Detachment Los Angeles, told The Log an administrative order has been issued to the owners of the vessel, who are now cooperating with the Coast Guard.
The administrative order stated that the owners are responsible for any pollutants that are still on board and are responsible for conducting a survey of the vessel and hiring someone to conduct a site safety plan for the recovery of any oil and hazardous material present. The owners must remove all oil, batteries and other hazardous material from the vessel; and the work must be completed by a certified cleanup contractor, Munoz explained.
The vessel’s owners must complete these removal actions by Feb. 3 or face penalties of $32,500 per day, per violation, Munoz said. “We are waiting for them to give us back their safety plan and remediation plan, so we are in a wait-and-see mode right now.”
If the responsible parties do not take action in the prescribed time frame, the Coast Guard will assume total control of the cleanup and will hire contractors to remove any remaining pollutants. The Coast Guard is permitted to charge fees of up to three times the amount it costs the agency to hire a contractor, and can recover the costs to the government for Coast Guard personnel, time and assets expended to conduct a cleanup.
But while the Coast Guard may cover the oil cleanup, it is not responsible for removing the debris, Oudin explained.
“I am looking into possibilities of cleanup funds -- and, so far, I have had no luck,” Oudin said. “Every source of funding that I’ve looked into is unavailable for this type of thing.”
Oudin estimates the cleanup and disposal of the wreck could cost the Harbor Department $20,000.
“I don’t know exactly what we are going to do with it,” Oudin said.
This article first appeared in the February 2008 issue of The Log Newspaper. All or parts of the information contained in this article might be outdated. |
