Man saw fire on barge 12 hours before spill

Investigators searching for the Dalco Passage mystery polluter are looking into reports that a barge was on fire in those waters hours before the oil spill was reported.

A University of Puget Sound philosophy professor has reported seeing a tugboat dousing a smoking barge in the middle of the shipping lane between Maury Island and Browns Point.

Mark Jenkins, who also teaches environmental ethics, was at his home in Old Town in Tacoma at 12:30 p.m. last Wednesday when he saw what he thought at first was a fireboat.

He said a "tuglike boat" was spraying water "in an obvious effort at fire suppression onto the sort of barge that carries fuel in the South Sound."

"There was a big plume of water going up, over and hitting the barge, and there was black smoke," Jenkins recalled. "My immediate thought was, I hope there's no oil spill occurring."

Through his binoculars, he couldn't make out the name of either vessel, both of which were dead in the water. He looked again a short time later and saw a tug towing the barge toward Point Defiance.

The fast-spreading spill was spotted about 12 hours later -- at 1:15 a.m. Thursday -- by a passing tug captain, who called the U.S. Coast Guard.

Later that day, when Jenkins heard about the spill, he called the Crime Stoppers number that authorities hunting for the mystery polluter set up as a tip line.

Jenkins said he was dismayed when the person who answered asked him "what river Seattle was on." The Crime Stoppers answering service is based in Utah and California.

He hung up and finally reached an environmental activist, who passed on his tip to the state Ecology Department. An Ecology employee contacted him at 5 p.m. Monday to take his information.

Coast Guard spokesman Jeff Pollinger said that if citizens have information that would help investigators, including anything about this spill, they can call a new number that has been set up for that purpose: 206-391-6705. Boaters can also call that number if their vessel has been tainted with oil, to get help with cleaning, he said.

Officials said it is possible that the damaged barge that Jenkins saw could have leaked oil for hours after he spotted it. The first report of the spill -- estimated at 1,000 to 1,500 gallons -- came in from a tug captain cruising Dalco Passage shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer relayed Jenkins' information to Ken Alger, operations director for the Coast Guard's Puget Sound Vessel Traffic System in Seattle, who said he was very interested.

Yesterday, Alger was in the midst of analyzing Coast Guard data to identify vessels that were in the area before the sighting of the spill, and he had not heard about the tug and barge. He said that when he relayed the information to investigators, they were grateful because they'd heard about the matter from other sources but didn't have witnesses to contact.

Pollinger confirmed that his agency had received other information about the smoking barge. He said it is being investigated, but declined to provide further details.

During the week-old hunt for the mystery polluter, investigators have been working to narrow the field, looking for ships that departed or entered Tacoma's harbor last Wednesday and Thursday.

Other evidence being examined includes laboratory matches between oil samples taken from ships and samples from the spill. The Coast Guard has in the last few days taken samples from more than a half-dozen ships, two barges that refueled the ships and the U.S. Oil refinery in Tacoma, which provided the fuel, according to maritime officials at various companies.

Ship documents, including bridge logs, engine logs and tank measurements, will also be scrutinized, officials said.

P-I reporter Eric Nalder can be reached at 206-448-8011 or ericnalder@seattlepi.com

Add P-I Local headlines to