Hairline crack found in tanker

by The Associated Press

A 3 1/2-inch crack was discovered in an Exxon tanker departing from Valdez early May 22, creating a sheen and forcing the ship back to the dock, state officials said.

Less than a gallon of oil escaped, said John Brown of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Containment boom was immediately laid around the 987-foot tanker SeaRiver Long Beach, and the Solomon Gulch fish hatchery less than a mile east, Brown said.

By the evening of May 22, divers had found the crack and the tanker was preparing to pump some of its load onto another tanker, the BP-chartered Marine Columbia, he said. The crack was found at the midsection of the ship’s single hull and opened to an oil tank, Brown said. The steel hull is less than an inch thick.

“It’s a hairline crack. You can just barely see it,” he said. “The droplets coming out are about the size of a pinhead.”

The ship is owned and operated by SeaRiver Maritime Inc., Exxon’s tanker subsidiary. It was attempting to leave Valdez with a total cargo of 59 million gallons of oil. The Coast Guard allowed the tanker to sail for Long Beach, Calif., May 23 to make permanent repairs.