Typhoon Soudelor damage in Saipan, Guam: 500 gallons of diesel spill in water, 120,000 of gallons spilled inside tank containment area, 2 fishing boats and a passenger charter hit shore

 

Coast Guard: Soudelor causes fuel spills in Saipan

Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno, gdumat-ol@guampdn.com 7:06 p.m. ChST August 3, 2015

Typhoon Soudelor damage in Saipan on the morning of Aug. 3.  Courtesy American Red Cross

500 gallons of diesel spill in water, 2 fishing boats and a passenger charter hit shore

(Photo: Daisy Demapan)

Flying debris from Typhoon Soudelor breached a fuel storage tank in Saipan, causing thousands of gallons of gasoline to spill into a containment area around the tank.

The tank held about 120,000 gallons of gasoline.

Coast Guard Sector Guam, which is coordinating response efforts in Saipan, stated none of the gasoline from the ruptured storage tank spilled from the containment area into the ocean.

A separate spill involving 500 gallons of diesel fuel did enter the port of Saipan, according to the Coast Guard.

Coast Guard also confirmed that three vessels were blown from their mooring and are now aground in Tanapag Harbor, Saipan.

Two are fishing boats, one 79 feet and the other 83 feet long, according to the Coast Guard.

The third vessel that ran aground is a 71-foot-long passenger charter boat.
It was unclear if any of the three vessels were in use before they were moored before the typhoon.

Response personnel from Sector Guam’s Incident Management Division along with pollution responders and vessel inspectors from Saipan have been dispatched to conduct assessments, mitigate the discharges and to coordinate with local responders to secure the scene.

Sector Guam has established an Incident Command Post to coordinate response efforts.