View to a Spill

A heads-up for anyone planning that historic trans-Bay swim today: please postpone for a week or so. Yesterday the Bay experienced not one ‘toxic’ spill, but two. In Martinez, a tugboat accidentally ruptured a pipeline at the Tesoro refinery just after noon, which resulted in a spill of as much as 1,500 gallons of gasoline into Carquinez Strait. Meanwhile, over in Tiburon, approximately 64,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater spilled into Raccoon Strait from the Sanitary District Plant on Paradise Drive. This one was due to a reported short circuit in a backup pumping system. Officials suspended vessel traffic in the area near the entrance to the Delta while they assessed the gas spill, while people farther down the Bay were warned to stay out of the water as health officials awaited the results of water testing.

Neither spill appeared to be as serious as the fuel or sewage spills that occurred in the last year. So far there have been no reports of injuries or deaths to local wildlife.