I came home, yesterday, around noonish. I live on the waterfront of
the Ashley River in Charleston, SC, about 9.5 miles up from the
harbor. The Ashley River, combined with the Cooper River, join
together in downtown Charleston to form the Atlantic Ocean.

I noticed a strong smell of diesel fuel in the air, so proceeded to
check out my diesel cars and truck for a leak. I found nothing. A
neighbor came over to see what I was doing and said he knew where the
smell was coming from, the river. I went down to the waterfront to
find a fairly big oil slick covered the water out front. I called 911
to report it, expecting a hazmat response team to find the leak and
stop it from polluting the river. I was wrong, not for reporting it,
but for expecting some government bureaucrats to DO something to stop
it.

The 911 operator triggered a fire truck pumper from our local city
fire station with three firemen whos lunch was interrupted. Two of
them were all dressed up to fight a fire, so was the truck. They
agreed there was an oil spill in the water and told their dispatcher
so. They called the Coast Guard and SC Department of Health and
Environmental Control (DHEC). Our fire department has no boat or, it
seems, hazmat team equipped for oil spills. They seemed very
reluctant to trespass on anyone's property for fear of the lawyers, so
the local chief arrived. One neighbor has a fuel oil tank on a small
hill overlooking the river, but that seemed secure when the chief
walked over to take a look.

A neighbor, hearing the fire truck ruckus, walked out on his dock and
also noticed the oil so got in his boat to ride around an look upriver
as the tide was going out. He offered the firemen a ride with him,
but they declined as they are not allowed to ride with mere mortals in
private boats, again for fear of being sued, I suppose.

I expected the Coast Guard to send a hazmat team in one of their fast
motor lifeboats or rib boats to be haulin' ass upriver. This was
another hope dashed, when two sailors, a politically-correct team of
one male and one asian female, arrived by car from downtown. These
were the investigators for the legal team, whos job it is to place
blame and see how big a fine they can impose on any violators dumping
oil into the waterways. They didn't have any hazmat materials to stop
the oil leak if we found it, only a little plastic sieve in a plastic
ring and a plastic oil collection bottle to gather evidence to use at
the poor *******s trial before sentencing. It's now over an hour
since my report. Noone, on scene, is capable of stopping an oil leak
or soaking up oil leaking from even a canoe, much less an oil tanker.
Not a single oil soaking pad has been exposed to the hazard.

A DHEC guy arrived who talked to the sailors and firemen. A decision
was made that the sailors were going to handle the investigation to
get the others off the hook. Hands were shaken and the State of South
Carolina's DHEC left without getting his hands oily. The male sailor
took a water sample and sealed the jar while the female sailor took
pictures on her top-of-the-line Sony Mavica SLR still camera to show
her boss the sailor got his shoes muddy taking the sample. His shoes
were the only oil casualty, other than the river and its inhabitants,
in this sordid affair.

Downriver from here, there is only one diesel-powered boat within 5
miles of waterfront. It's an aging sport fisherman, that has been
perched over the river on its electric lift for as long as any of us
can remember. Its owner has long since abandoned deep sea fishing, or
even cruising it up and down the river, because he's quite old and
goes out of state a lot, leaving the once-nice boat to sit and rot in
the hot SC sunshine, abandoned.

The male sailor knows the boat. He has investigated other complaints
of oil leakage from it many months past from other neighbors on the
downriver side of it. He said CG had inspected its overboard
discharge ports and found diesel fuel leaking out of it, long ago.
The owner's son was notified because the owner was out-of-town making
another million, I suppose, and the son and a mechanic were supposed
to "take a look" for oil leaks in the fiberglass hull's interior. Of
course, it seems no follow-up inspection was done to insure the
problem was actually found and corrected.....only that all the
required paperwork and reports were neatly typed without errors and
filed away with the millions of other reports in some haze grey
cabinets for future court actions. The on-scene sailors, Second Class
Petty Officers, USCG, were going to go look, again, at the boat to see
if that was the source of the oil slick. Noone was in a hurry to stop
it.

The North Charleston Fire Chief, alerted to the ruckus on the
waterfront, showed up to confer with the on-scene local chief to make
sure the department was following the book. Firemen who had turned
the truck around to go finish lunch decided to back the truck back
down our dead-end street for the Chief. Lunch was gonna be later then
planned. Some firemen started in on the now-cold greasy fried
chicken. I hoped none of it got into the river to make the oil slick
bigger.

The "chief's conference" was short as government-sponsored conferences
go and both chief's determined they were off the hook for any cleanup,
leaving all responsibilities to the politically-correct sailors to
handle. The firemen all left as they had come, ready to fight that
dumpster fire at a moment's notice. God bless 'em. We should buy 'em
a boat and show 'em how to use it....maybe some oil pads and a little
pump or at least some plastic sheets.

The party broke up soon after the sailors headed over towards Lamb's
Road to look at the diesel boat.....No hurry. They didn't have the
equipment to stop the boat from leaking, anyway, in their nice car.
You'd have to have a BOAT to go under the boat on the lift to put some
plastic under it to catch any diesel oil leaking out of it. Well,
Duhhhh......

I suppose, by now, the son has been notified, the reports are being
neatly typed by the hazmat typing team and all is well, again, on the
Ashley River.....still coated with diesel fuel. The tide'll have to
take care of the cleanup. If you live downriver, keep a sharp eye out
and jack up the boat on your lift another foot.

Thanks.

Hi Larry,
A good article and even better, your observations! In order to get attention
in this "new world" may be the wording of your complaint needs to be
"updated"!

Suggestion:
When you call in to 911 use the phrase;
" May be started by a " terrorist" or is it a "terrorist action/plot".

In stead of the fire dept. may be they'll send the Homeland Security Rep.
;-))
If the story was not so tragic, it might be comical in its own way ;-)
Taxes at work.
--
c ya Wim
www.cruising.ca/thousand/f-index.html


"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
: I came home, yesterday, around noonish. I live on the waterfront of
: the Ashley River in Charleston, SC, about 9.5 miles up from the
: harbor. The Ashley River, combined with the Cooper River, join
: together in downtown Charleston to form the Atlantic Ocean.
:
: I noticed a strong smell of diesel fuel in the air, so proceeded to
: check out my diesel cars and truck for a leak. I found nothing. A
: neighbor came over to see what I was doing and said he knew where the
: smell was coming from, the river. I went down to the waterfront to
: find a fairly big oil slick covered the water out front. I called 911
: to report it, expecting a hazmat response team to find the leak and
: stop it from polluting the river. I was wrong, not for reporting it,
: but for expecting some government bureaucrats to DO something to stop
: it.
:
: The 911 operator triggered a fire truck pumper from our local city
: fire station with three firemen whos lunch was interrupted. Two of
: them were all dressed up to fight a fire, so was the truck. They
: agreed there was an oil spill in the water and told their dispatcher
: so. They called the Coast Guard and SC Department of Health and
: Environmental Control (DHEC). Our fire department has no boat or, it
: seems, hazmat team equipped for oil spills. They seemed very
: reluctant to trespass on anyone's property for fear of the lawyers, so
: the local chief arrived. One neighbor has a fuel oil tank on a small
: hill overlooking the river, but that seemed secure when the chief
: walked over to take a look.
:
: A neighbor, hearing the fire truck ruckus, walked out on his dock and
: also noticed the oil so got in his boat to ride around an look upriver
: as the tide was going out. He offered the firemen a ride with him,
: but they declined as they are not allowed to ride with mere mortals in
: private boats, again for fear of being sued, I suppose.
:
: I expected the Coast Guard to send a hazmat team in one of their fast
: motor lifeboats or rib boats to be haulin' ass upriver. This was
: another hope dashed, when two sailors, a politically-correct team of
: one male and one asian female, arrived by car from downtown. These
: were the investigators for the legal team, whos job it is to place
: blame and see how big a fine they can impose on any violators dumping
: oil into the waterways. They didn't have any hazmat materials to stop
: the oil leak if we found it, only a little plastic sieve in a plastic
: ring and a plastic oil collection bottle to gather evidence to use at
: the poor *******s trial before sentencing. It's now over an hour
: since my report. Noone, on scene, is capable of stopping an oil leak
: or soaking up oil leaking from even a canoe, much less an oil tanker.
: Not a single oil soaking pad has been exposed to the hazard.
:
: A DHEC guy arrived who talked to the sailors and firemen. A decision
: was made that the sailors were going to handle the investigation to
: get the others off the hook. Hands were shaken and the State of South
: Carolina's DHEC left without getting his hands oily. The male sailor
: took a water sample and sealed the jar while the female sailor took
: pictures on her top-of-the-line Sony Mavica SLR still camera to show
: her boss the sailor got his shoes muddy taking the sample. His shoes
: were the only oil casualty, other than the river and its inhabitants,
: in this sordid affair.
:
: Downriver from here, there is only one diesel-powered boat within 5
: miles of waterfront. It's an aging sport fisherman, that has been
: perched over the river on its electric lift for as long as any of us
: can remember. Its owner has long since abandoned deep sea fishing, or
: even cruising it up and down the river, because he's quite old and
: goes out of state a lot, leaving the once-nice boat to sit and rot in
: the hot SC sunshine, abandoned.
:
: The male sailor knows the boat. He has investigated other complaints
: of oil leakage from it many months past from other neighbors on the
: downriver side of it. He said CG had inspected its overboard
: discharge ports and found diesel fuel leaking out of it, long ago.
: The owner's son was notified because the owner was out-of-town making
: another million, I suppose, and the son and a mechanic were supposed
: to "take a look" for oil leaks in the fiberglass hull's interior. Of
: course, it seems no follow-up inspection was done to insure the
: problem was actually found and corrected.....only that all the
: required paperwork and reports were neatly typed without errors and
: filed away with the millions of other reports in some haze grey
: cabinets for future court actions. The on-scene sailors, Second Class
: Petty Officers, USCG, were going to go look, again, at the boat to see
: if that was the source of the oil slick. Noone was in a hurry to stop
: it.
:
: The North Charleston Fire Chief, alerted to the ruckus on the
: waterfront, showed up to confer with the on-scene local chief to make
: sure the department was following the book. Firemen who had turned
: the truck around to go finish lunch decided to back the truck back
: down our dead-end street for the Chief. Lunch was gonna be later then
: planned. Some firemen started in on the now-cold greasy fried
: chicken. I hoped none of it got into the river to make the oil slick
: bigger.
:
: The "chief's conference" was short as government-sponsored conferences
: go and both chief's determined they were off the hook for any cleanup,
: leaving all responsibilities to the politically-correct sailors to
: handle. The firemen all left as they had come, ready to fight that
: dumpster fire at a moment's notice. God bless 'em. We should buy 'em
: a boat and show 'em how to use it....maybe some oil pads and a little
: pump or at least some plastic sheets.
:
: The party broke up soon after the sailors headed over towards Lamb's
: Road to look at the diesel boat.....No hurry. They didn't have the
: equipment to stop the boat from leaking, anyway, in their nice car.
: You'd have to have a BOAT to go under the boat on the lift to put some
: plastic under it to catch any diesel oil leaking out of it. Well,
: Duhhhh......
:
: I suppose, by now, the son has been notified, the reports are being
: neatly typed by the hazmat typing team and all is well, again, on the
: Ashley River.....still coated with diesel fuel. The tide'll have to
: take care of the cleanup. If you live downriver, keep a sharp eye out
: and jack up the boat on your lift another foot.
:
: Thanks.
:
:

Larry W4CSC wrote:

I noticed a strong smell of diesel fuel in the air,

Deja vu all over again!

A version of the same thing has happened at my marina three times in the
past year. I say a version because the organizations that consume my
taxes for their own amusement were even less interested than your local
defenders.

The crew of a nearby fishing boat (a Bering Sea crabber) were shifting
gear on deck and blew out a hydraulic line. It dumped around 20 gallons
of oil over the side through a scupper before they shut down the system.
They saw the oil on the water, and hydraulic oil on water is a real
mess, worse than diesel in my opinion, and what did they do? They simply
hauled ass, left the boat and the dock and never looked back! This was
in broad daylight!

Tried to call the Coast Guard spill response number and got routed
instead to some "Fatherland Sekurity" hotline ... I don't want the
Gestapo, I wanted a spill response team to spend some of my tax money
and clean the stuff up. Called the water cops, they directed me from one
number to another until I was disconnected. Screw it.

The same thing, another crabber with a broken hydraulic line, someone
else managed to get the teenage Coasties to show up and even showed them
the slick on the side of the crabber but that wasn't enough evidence for
the defenders to board the thing and get samples of the "suspected'
source. Nothing happened, no cleanup, no followup.

Last week I came home to the smell of fresh diesel permeating the
marina. Pools of red diesel were backed up against the opposite side of
the dock and a sheen was all around my boat. This was an exact repeat of
an event the week before which I did nothing about but this time I was
annoyed that it occurred again and decided to report it (after making
sure it wasn't from MY boat.)

I didn't even bother to call the federal Gestapo, I called the water
cops and surprisingly enough they said they would notify the Coast Guard
and then transferred me to the fire department for some reason. The fire
department asked a few relevant questions and then said they would be
down to look at it.

A few minutes later a fire truck showed up with the guys in turnout gear
and three of them came on the dock and looked around. They asked a few
questions and made small talk about boats and boating. They said there
was nothing they could do (no kidding) but that the Coast Guard had been
notified and would probably be down soon. They were very cheerful, made
their farewells and then drove away.

The Coasties never showed up or called. The diesel finally drifted down
toward the locks and the Sound and so far as I know no one was the least
bit inconvenienced but the fish and clams.

This spill was either an overfueling or someone has a bilge full of
diesel and it gets pumped over automatically every week or so. I guess
despite all the dire threats and enormous public funding of enforcement
agencies and cleanup contractors none of the alphabet agencies really
want to go as far as the Carolina Coasty and get their shoes dirty and
find the source.

Makes it kind of hard to take any of them seriously doesn't it?

Rick

I was going to suggest that you call the local paper and get their photographer
to take a picture of you trying to clean it up yourself in order to embarrass
the government into doing something actually useful. But it occurred to me that
the response would probably be to arrest you for unlicensed hazardous waste
disposal or something stupid like that.

--
Chuck Cox
SynchroSystems Motorsport Computers
Hopped/Up Racing Team

http://www.synchro.com

BUT if any of US loose a couple of spoonfulls of oil over the side they
will be down on us like ducks on a Junebug.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

Well this happens. Most emergency response people are very reluctant to get
involved with a clean-up unless they can clearly identify who caused the
problem. It does not cost them anything to look at it but if they start to
clean it up then they are now responsible and if they can't recover the
costs (generally in court) they get the bill.

mark

I told the fire chief the best way to get the CG here, fast, was to
tell them we found 6 bales of pot floating in the river....(c;



On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 11:26:13 -0500, "Wim" wrote:

Hi Larry,
A good article and even better, your observations! In order to get attention
in this "new world" may be the wording of your complaint needs to be
"updated"!

Suggestion:
When you call in to 911 use the phrase;
" May be started by a " terrorist" or is it a "terrorist action/plot".

In stead of the fire dept. may be they'll send the Homeland Security Rep.
;-))
If the story was not so tragic, it might be comical in its own way ;-)
Taxes at work.
--
c ya Wim
www.cruising.ca/thousand/f-index.html


"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
: I came home, yesterday, around noonish. I live on the waterfront of
: the Ashley River in Charleston, SC, about 9.5 miles up from the
: harbor. The Ashley River, combined with the Cooper River, join
: together in downtown Charleston to form the Atlantic Ocean.
:
: I noticed a strong smell of diesel fuel in the air, so proceeded to
: check out my diesel cars and truck for a leak. I found nothing. A
: neighbor came over to see what I was doing and said he knew where the
: smell was coming from, the river. I went down to the waterfront to
: find a fairly big oil slick covered the water out front. I called 911
: to report it, expecting a hazmat response team to find the leak and
: stop it from polluting the river. I was wrong, not for reporting it,
: but for expecting some government bureaucrats to DO something to stop
: it.
:
: The 911 operator triggered a fire truck pumper from our local city
: fire station with three firemen whos lunch was interrupted. Two of
: them were all dressed up to fight a fire, so was the truck. They
: agreed there was an oil spill in the water and told their dispatcher
: so. They called the Coast Guard and SC Department of Health and
: Environmental Control (DHEC). Our fire department has no boat or, it
: seems, hazmat team equipped for oil spills. They seemed very
: reluctant to trespass on anyone's property for fear of the lawyers, so
: the local chief arrived. One neighbor has a fuel oil tank on a small
: hill overlooking the river, but that seemed secure when the chief
: walked over to take a look.
:
: A neighbor, hearing the fire truck ruckus, walked out on his dock and
: also noticed the oil so got in his boat to ride around an look upriver
: as the tide was going out. He offered the firemen a ride with him,
: but they declined as they are not allowed to ride with mere mortals in
: private boats, again for fear of being sued, I suppose.
:
: I expected the Coast Guard to send a hazmat team in one of their fast
: motor lifeboats or rib boats to be haulin' ass upriver. This was
: another hope dashed, when two sailors, a politically-correct team of
: one male and one asian female, arrived by car from downtown. These
: were the investigators for the legal team, whos job it is to place
: blame and see how big a fine they can impose on any violators dumping
: oil into the waterways. They didn't have any hazmat materials to stop
: the oil leak if we found it, only a little plastic sieve in a plastic
: ring and a plastic oil collection bottle to gather evidence to use at
: the poor *******s trial before sentencing. It's now over an hour
: since my report. Noone, on scene, is capable of stopping an oil leak
: or soaking up oil leaking from even a canoe, much less an oil tanker.
: Not a single oil soaking pad has been exposed to the hazard.
:
: A DHEC guy arrived who talked to the sailors and firemen. A decision
: was made that the sailors were going to handle the investigation to
: get the others off the hook. Hands were shaken and the State of South
: Carolina's DHEC left without getting his hands oily. The male sailor
: took a water sample and sealed the jar while the female sailor took
: pictures on her top-of-the-line Sony Mavica SLR still camera to show
: her boss the sailor got his shoes muddy taking the sample. His shoes
: were the only oil casualty, other than the river and its inhabitants,
: in this sordid affair.
:
: Downriver from here, there is only one diesel-powered boat within 5
: miles of waterfront. It's an aging sport fisherman, that has been
: perched over the river on its electric lift for as long as any of us
: can remember. Its owner has long since abandoned deep sea fishing, or
: even cruising it up and down the river, because he's quite old and
: goes out of state a lot, leaving the once-nice boat to sit and rot in
: the hot SC sunshine, abandoned.
:
: The male sailor knows the boat. He has investigated other complaints
: of oil leakage from it many months past from other neighbors on the
: downriver side of it. He said CG had inspected its overboard
: discharge ports and found diesel fuel leaking out of it, long ago.
: The owner's son was notified because the owner was out-of-town making
: another million, I suppose, and the son and a mechanic were supposed
: to "take a look" for oil leaks in the fiberglass hull's interior. Of
: course, it seems no follow-up inspection was done to insure the
: problem was actually found and corrected.....only that all the
: required paperwork and reports were neatly typed without errors and
: filed away with the millions of other reports in some haze grey
: cabinets for future court actions. The on-scene sailors, Second Class
: Petty Officers, USCG, were going to go look, again, at the boat to see
: if that was the source of the oil slick. Noone was in a hurry to stop
: it.
:
: The North Charleston Fire Chief, alerted to the ruckus on the
: waterfront, showed up to confer with the on-scene local chief to make
: sure the department was following the book. Firemen who had turned
: the truck around to go finish lunch decided to back the truck back
: down our dead-end street for the Chief. Lunch was gonna be later then
: planned. Some firemen started in on the now-cold greasy fried
: chicken. I hoped none of it got into the river to make the oil slick
: bigger.
:
: The "chief's conference" was short as government-sponsored conferences
: go and both chief's determined they were off the hook for any cleanup,
: leaving all responsibilities to the politically-correct sailors to
: handle. The firemen all left as they had come, ready to fight that
: dumpster fire at a moment's notice. God bless 'em. We should buy 'em
: a boat and show 'em how to use it....maybe some oil pads and a little
: pump or at least some plastic sheets.
:
: The party broke up soon after the sailors headed over towards Lamb's
: Road to look at the diesel boat.....No hurry. They didn't have the
: equipment to stop the boat from leaking, anyway, in their nice car.
: You'd have to have a BOAT to go under the boat on the lift to put some
: plastic under it to catch any diesel oil leaking out of it. Well,
: Duhhhh......
:
: I suppose, by now, the son has been notified, the reports are being
: neatly typed by the hazmat typing team and all is well, again, on the
: Ashley River.....still coated with diesel fuel. The tide'll have to
: take care of the cleanup. If you live downriver, keep a sharp eye out
: and jack up the boat on your lift another foot.
:
: Thanks.
:
:




Larry W4CSC

"Very funny, Scotty! Now, BEAM ME MY CLOTHES! KIRK OUT!"

rock_doctor wrote:

Well this happens. Most emergency response people are very reluctant to get
involved with a clean-up unless they can clearly identify who caused the
problem. It does not cost them anything to look at it but if they start to
clean it up then they are now responsible and if they can't recover the
costs (generally in court) they get the bill.

That is not quite how it works. The federal agency involved in
coordinating the cleanup (it is in navigable waters) is empowered to
call in all the contractors required to deal with the incident. The
cleanup fund covers all the costs and the government deals with the
details of who to sue for recovery after the dust settles.

The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund was setup to avoid just the scenario
you described.

Take a look at:

http://www.epa.gov/oerrpage/superfun.../lgr/index.htm

and

http://www.epa.gov/oerrpage/superfun...nrs/nrsosc.htm

Rick

"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
I told the fire chief the best way to get the CG here, fast, was to
tell them we found 6 bales of pot floating in the river....(c;

Don't count on it... When I was a kid I was in the Keys at a small marina.
We (my family) sat there for an hour and watch two guys throws trash bags of
"stuff" from the back of one speed boat to another. Nobody cared...
Besides now that the Coast Guard is part of Homeland Security I wonder how
their role will change from what it was when they were part of the Dept of
transportation.

mark

x-no-archive:yes "rock_doctor" wrote:


"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
I told the fire chief the best way to get the CG here, fast, was to
tell them we found 6 bales of pot floating in the river....(c;

Don't count on it... When I was a kid I was in the Keys at a small marina.
We (my family) sat there for an hour and watch two guys throws trash bags of
"stuff" from the back of one speed boat to another. Nobody cared...

We were anchored off Marathon one night an a cigarette boat with two
big outboards (at least it sounded like it had big ones - you know
that growl that the big engines make) with no lights came up and put a
spotlight on us. We were terrified as we couldn't see them. They
went over and met up with a couple of other boats and they were
transferring stuff from one boat to another.

I did not like to call on the radio (they probably had radios too), so
I called the Coast Guard on the phone. After about an hour, I called
the CG back and they said the boats were theirs and they were working.

Besides now that the Coast Guard is part of Homeland Security I wonder how
their role will change from what it was when they were part of the Dept of
transportation.

In any case, large companies are required to have spill response
plans, and they are supposed to practice. But they aren't going to do
spill response to something they didn't spill.

So if the spill is a private person, there's nobody to clean it up.
If the spill is big enough and notorious enough, and it can be proved
where it came from, then the person who spilled can be fined and
required to hire someone to clean it up. But it has to be a pretty
big spill or a deep pockets company, otherwise it is too much work for
the benefit.

grandma Rosalie