The Amazon Venture oil spill occurred at the port of Savannah on the Savannah River in the U.S. state of Georgia. The spill, which occurred from December 4 to 6, 1986, was caused by three defective valves in the piping system of the oil tanker MV Amazon Venture, which leaked approximately 500,000 US gallons (; roughly ) of fuel oil into the river.
Authorities at the port were made aware of oil in the river approximately three hours after the ship began offloading its oil, but due to difficulties in locating the source of the spill, the ship was allowed to continue offloading until it completed on December 6. That same day, chemical testing revealed that the ship had been responsible for the spill. While initial estimates categorized the accident as a minor spill involving about of oil, this value quickly rose over the following days, ultimately becoming classified as a major spill. Officials focused primarily on protecting the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area upriver from the port that included a large amount of marshland and served as a habitat for several endangered species. However, due to strong tidal currents, containment booms proved ineffective and about a third of the refuge would be contaminated by oil. Cleanup efforts would continue until being declared officially done on March 13, 1987, with roughly of oil recovered.
The spill is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the region, with particular concern regarding the long-term effects of the contamination on the wildlife refuge. The company that operated the tanker agreed to pay $1.2 million in damages to the U.S. federal government and the states of Georgia and South Carolina, while total damage claims from the spill totaled between $7 million and $8 million.
Background
The MV Amazon Venture was a tanker that was operated by the Greece-based Calluna Maritime Corporation. The ship was registered in Liberia and had a gross tonnage of 31,683 and a length of . On December 4, 1986, the ship docked at the Garden City Terminal of the Port of Savannah in the U.S. state of Georgia. The tanker had departed from Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago with a bulk cargo of approximately of number 6 fuel oil and was scheduled to unload approximately of oil at the port. The terminal was located approximately upriver from the Atlantic Ocean on the bank of the Savannah River near Savannah, Georgia. Approximately upriver from the terminal was the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area along the river that covered about . Five endangered species inhabited the refuge: the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, the red-cockaded woodpecker, the shortnose sturgeon, and the wood stork. At that time, the ship was the only tanker at the port carrying number 6 fuel oil. While docking on December 4, the vessel ran aground, with the port-side bilge keel scraping the bottom of the riverbed.
Prior to the ship's arrival in Savannah, the Amazon Venture had been docked at the Port of New York and New Jersey, where, in mid-November 1986, it was responsible for an oil spill involving approximately of oil. At the time, the ship was transporting oil to Consolidated Edison, which had had an oil spill about a week prior that was in the process of being cleaned up. As a result, it was not realized at the time that this new spill had occurred, and only later oil sampling confirmed that the Amazon Venture had been responsible for a leak in New York.
Oil spill Detection and response On the night of December 4, 1986, as the Amazon Venture began offloading its cargo, oil began spilling from the ship due to three faulty valves. Approximately 3 hours after this began, the U.S. Customs Service became aware of oil in the river and contacted the Marine Safety Office (MSO) of the U.S. Coast Guard based in Savannah. The Coast Guard was notified at 11:30 p.m. and personnel were present at the scene approximately 30 minutes later. They gave an initial estimate of a minor spill involving , a figure still large enough that the spill was of federal concern. With this, several federal and state agencies were brought in to assess the situation and oil samples from ships at the dock were collected to be chemically analyzed to see if they matched the oil found in the river. While oil testing such as this would normally have been conducted at the Coast Guard's Central Oil Identification Laboratory in Groton, Connecticut, arrangements were made to have the tests performed in a more timely manner by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control at their facilities in Columbia, South Carolina. After the discovery of oil in the river, the Amazon Venture was ordered to stop offloading, but after an initial inspection found no evidence of leaking, it began offloading again at 12:40 a.m. on December 5. It would continue until its offloading was completed at 3:18 a.m. on December 6.
At daybreak on December 5, the Coast Guard began to perform surveys on the area of the river near the port to determine the size and scope of the spill. These surveys showed oil contamination along an section of the river, stretching upriver to the Houlihan Bridge and downriver to the port's East Coast Terminal. The same day that the surveys were being conducted, the Coast Guard set up booms around the terminal to prevent the oil from spreading. Over the following several days, booms were placed near the terminal, in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, and along the Wilmington River, which connected to the Savannah River downstream from the spill. However, due to strong tidal currents, the booms were mostly ineffective and contained only a small amount of the oil. On the evening of December 5, a diver discovered a crack on the hull of the Amazon Venture, though further sounding of the oil tanks did not show water had entered them. However, on the morning of December 6, chemical analysis revealed that the oil had come from the Amazon Venture, though it was still unknown what had caused the oil spill to occur. Later that day, the Coast Guard updated their estimates from to , which qualified as a medium spill. Around the same time, aerial surveys conducted on a daily basis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Coast Guard led them to believe that the spill was much larger than previously estimated. As a result, five members of the Coast Guard's Gulf Strike Team in Mobile, Alabama who were trained in managing oil spills were brought in to help with surveying. As a result of the surveys, on December 7, the estimate was updated from 11,000 US gallons to , which still categorized it as a medium spill. That evening, the cause of the spill was determined: while offloading the oil, the ship was also pumping oil through its ballast piping system, which was then discharged from the ship's sea chest on its port side. This action was the result of three valves that had all malfunctioned at the same time, and later analyses of these valves revealed that the most likely cause for these failures was a section of -diameter rope measuring between that had become stuck in the valves and prevented them from seating. This inspection also led investigators to believe that the grounding was not the cause of the spill. As a result of the discovery, the Coast Guard ordered that the three valves be removed and steel plates put in their place to physically prevent flow through that piping system. After this discovery was made, Calluna Maritime accepted responsibility for the spill and subsequent cleanup.
Cleanup efforts
On December 9, in an effort to slow the movement of the oil upriver towards the wildlife refuge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers temporarily opened tidal gates on the Back River, a channel that was bifurcated from the main channel of the Savannah River. These gates would remain open until December 16 and aided in the cleanup process, which was led by the Coast Guard and involved six private contractors, including two that had been hired directly by Calluna Maritime. Calluna retained the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation of London to oversee its part of the cleanup efforts, and O'Brien's Oil Pollution Service, Inc. of Gretna, Louisiana was designated as the prime cleanup coordinator. Approximately 60 people were involved in the cleanup, which included the use of of containment booms, of absorbent booms, and nine vacuum trucks. The wildlife refuge was of significant importance to the cleanup efforts, as two contractors focused exclusively on the area, and of the total boom length was deployed in the refuge. This emphasis on the refuge was echoed by John Rousakis, mayor of Savannah, who stated that the refuge might be the area most affected by the spill. Additional focus was placed on Abercorn Creek, due to its water intake. However, the containment efforts were hindered due to both strong tidal currents and the inability to spread the booms across the width of the river. The presence of oil in areas thought to be protected by the booms was confirmed in part by oil found in the meat of shellfish from these areas.
On December 11, the estimate for how much oil had spilled rose from 50,000 to , which categorized the incident as a major spill. This followed gauge measurements taken on December 8 that had shown a discrepancy of 500,000 US gallons between the amount of oil that had left the ship and the amount of oil that had been received at the terminal. With the declaration of a major spill, a Regional Response Team was officially mobilized, although many of the constituent agencies that made up the team were already involved in handling the spill. Also on December 11, the Amazon Venture departed from the port after the ship's insurer gave assurances to the Coast Guard that they would pay for the cleanup and posted a $5.2 million bond in a United States district court to cover any civil damage claims. By December 13, approximately of oil had been removed, though on that same day, a representative for the Coast Guard stated that much of the oil would not be able to be recovered, with the remaining contaminant allowed to dissipate naturally. According to a representative for the Coast Guard, "It's not a situation where the whole river has been covered with oil. It's a situation where you have patches of oil and there'll probably be an oil sheen for a while to come. But with the activity on the river at the port and with dredging, the nature of the river front means you're going to have some oil sheen." In the case of marshlands that had been contaminated with oil, NOAA recommended on allowing the oil to naturally dissipate, as a manual cleanup could have caused additional damage to that environment.