Ferry passengers on the Horseshoe Bay to Langdale route saw service cut for approximately three hours in the middle of the day Friday, June 4 due to technical problems on the Queen of Coquitlam.
"The vessel has what is reported to be a crack in a cooler in the gearbox," said Deborah Marshall, B.C. Ferries' director of media relations. "So there was some oil that was released to the environment and that is why Langdale Terminal is putting out their environmental plan with soaker pads and whatnot."
Ferry personnel, she said, noted the problem shortly after the vessel departed from Langdale at 10:22 a.m.
"The terminal staff noticed the sheen on the water after the vessel had departed, so they alerted the ship and the ship started to look at what the problem was," she said.
After completing the run the vessel stayed in Horseshoe Bay as engineers worked on repairs. The 11:20 a.m. sailing from Horseshoe Bay was cancelled and the company brought the Queen of Cowichan to Horseshoe Bay to help deal with the passenger backlog.
Marshall said the Queen of Cowichan was slated for a 2:10 p.m. "extra unscheduled" sailing to Langdale, but was unable to immediately confirm if the Queen of Coquitlam would be up and running to complete the scheduled 1:20 run, albeit with a delay.
"The Coquitlam may in fact leave before the Cowichan," she said.
Marshall couldn't confirm when the oil spill would be cleaned up by, but said that it should be within the day. She was unable to immediately confirm if any cleanup activity was occurring on the Horseshoe Bay side, but stressed that B.C. Ferries has protocols in place for this type of situation.
"Anytime anything goes into the environment, obviously we're concerned about it and we report to all the authorities that we need to," she said. "We do have spill equipment and boom absorbant pads and those kind of things at the terminal for this very purpose and we do training drills and whatnot. I know the crew jumped right on it at Langdale when they noticed the sheen on the water."
For further updates on the sailing schedule, check out www.bcferries.com.
