Cargo ship spills nearly 50K gallons of diesel in Lake Michigan

Aug. 3—MANISTEE — The United States Coast Guard and other local agencies are working together after the Manitowoc cargo ship leaked nearly 50,000 gallons of red-dyed diesel fuel into Lake Michigan.

The incident was first reported at 2:50 p.m. Wednesday when Manitowoc's crew reported a hull breach on its starboard diesel tank.

When the ship began to leak, it was 1.5 nautical miles offshore, northwest of where the Manistee River enters Lake Michigan, Coast Guard officials said.

Just after midnight on Thursday, U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Heather Stemmerman confirmed the vessel was no longer leaking diesel.

The 612-foot-long bulk carrier was built in 1973, and a release said the maximum spill potential from the diesel tank is 45,174 gallons of red-dyed diesel fuel.

As of Thursday evening, Manistee City Fire Department Chief Tom Hernden said they had not seen any diesel sheen on any of their inland lakes or rivers.

Crew members first noticed the leak as the vessel was starting to make headway out of its port and into Lake Michigan, officials said.

At that point, they said, they noticed their fuel gauges rising, which is when they saw the breached hull with a potentially 1-inch long hole.

Crews then activated their response plan, anchored the vessel and called a diesel-spill removal organization, Stemmerman said.

Internal diesel transfers lowered the level of diesel in the leaking tank so that it was below the hole, which has since been temporarily repaired using epoxy.

This temporary repair job is under review by the U.S. Coast Guard and the American Bureau of Shipping, and must be approved by both organizations before the ship can move anywhere, including back to its port.

A red slick was seen that was 1.6 miles by 200 yards wide and starting to drift northeast from the vessel within a few hours of the initial report, officials reported.

A unified command was established to oversee and direct cleanup response efforts.

Representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard; the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy; Manistee County Emergency Management; Benzie County Emergency Management; Little River Band of Ottawa Indians; Manistee and Benzie County Sheriff's Offices; and the City of Manistee will all be participating in this effort.

District Health Department No. 10 spokesman Nick Eckhart sent out a release on Thursday afternoon asking people to avoid skin contact with surface water by 5th Avenue Beach in the city of Manistee, since it might have been impacted by the spill.

Both that beach and the North Access Beach were closed by the City of Manistee, but the fire chief confirmed there has been no reported contamination on any of their beaches.

Eckhart also emphasized that if anyone sees any remnant of the diesel spill across the shoreline, they should avoid any body contact with the water there as well.

"Diesel is a potentially hazardous material that can present significant health impacts with prolonged exposure," he said in a release. "DHD No. 10 and other local agencies are requesting that residents avoid areas that may have diesel contamination and to not attempt to rescue injured wildlife."

The U.S. Coast Guard officials echoed Eckhart's comments, and asked the public to avoid contact with any areas that might have been affected.

During a press conference on Thursday afternoon, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan Captain and federal on-scene coordinator Seth Parker said an "aggressive and rapid response" was initiated by all partners and port stakeholders.

This response will be "sustained as long as necessary," Parker said.

"The response efforts have mobilized all necessary resources to respond to the potential discharge from the motor vessel," he said.

Currently, Stemmerman said there is no known or expected impact to drinking water. The cause of the spill is still under investigation.

According to Parker, the Coast Guard conducted an overflight at first light of the impacted area for two hours and no active sheen coming from the vessel was observed.

But, the overflight did locate a visible sheen 8 nautical miles north of Manistee. Parker said that sheen was 2-nautical-miles long by 3.5-nautical-miles wide.

The closest land to that sheen was the Portage Point Woods Preserve, which is approximately half a nautical mile away.

So far, the Coast Guard has deployed a helicopter from Detroit, an auxiliary aircraft, a 45-foot response boat, a 29-foot response boat, two small boats, 4,000 feet of hard boom and another 4,000 feet of disposable ones, with more on the way.

All of the booms are currently staged out of Portage Lake, according to the commanding officer.

The oil spill removal organization placed additional tow booms to try and collect any recoverable amounts of diesel fuel, but Parker said those efforts were put on a brief pause because of wind and weather concerns.

They resumed Thursday evening with sorbet booms deployed by the Oil Spill Removal Organization.

The U.S. Coast Guard said they are currently conducting shoreline assessments and have reported no current impacts to the shoreline as of Thursday night.

Parker said, at this point, water could have potentially gotten in the fuel tanks causing the hull to overflow and spill. He added that the Manitowoc had its last survey completed in April 2023. He said he has no prior knowledge of incidents like this one.

Despite the current low human risk, he said there will be wildlife impacted by the spill.

This "will depend on the water columns as it dissipates through and evaporates through the environment," he said. "It will be minimal, compared to any type of oil release."

If there are any reports of injured or dead wildlife, Parker said he will contact local and state officials to make them aware of it.

EGLE officials said they were unable to speak about any potential danger to the wildlife, citing the unified task force helmed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

"As long as the response takes, we'll be out here responding to ensure that all the vessel has been totally cleaned up before movement and/or the sheen has been [cleaned up] if it has any potential impact to the shoreline," Parker said. "But we'll be out here continuously."

The U.S. Coast Guard asked the public to call 231-723-6241 for any confirmed sightings of diesel fuel reaching the shoreline.