Fishing banned after Petaluma River oil spill

Also Tuesday, federal environmental health officials joined state wildlife investigators in an examination into the leakage of lubricating oil spill from the 90-ton vessel at it was being taken apart, apparently for scrap metal.

Fish and Game spokeswoman Alexia Retallack said the fishing ban, from where the river flows under Highway 101 to the Payran Bridge, is a preventative measure.

“We have closed the river to all angling from the shore or boat until further notice,” she said. “This is a precautionary measure, something we do to be sure and safe.”

She said investigators have found no evidence of wildlife damage caused by the spill of an estimated 200 to 600 gallons of oil from the tug boat.

“We haven’t seen any wildlife affected. Crews are out checking the streams and coves,” she said.

The fishing ban will be evaluated as the investigation continues.

Environmental damage to the marshland and river shores was still being evaluated. Air monitors continue to show there is no hazardous exposure, she said.

Boating is permitted, but officials ask that anyone passing the site slow so as to not create a wake that would disturb and potentially spread remaining oil.

Fish and Game officials said the dismantling operation had been ongoing for about a week. The cove is a 175-foot inlet off an arm of the Petaluma River between Hopper Street and Petaluma Boulevard South, along which several industrial companies operate.

The spill, which was reported by a nearby resident Monday morning, appears to have been contained to a two-mile stretch of river.

Booms to prevent further spread of the oily sheen remained in place Tuesday at several points on the river, along with absorbent pads that soak up surface oil and booms that attract and absorb oil.

“We haven’t seen anything past those booms,” said Retallack, the Fisf and Game official.

In addition, vacuum trucks sucked up several hundred gallons of fouled water from the cove, located on property of the former concrete cast company Pomeroy Corp.

The tug boat, which hadn’t been operated for the past three years, was owned and being dismantled by an Alameda salvage company called ATOP TRC Inc., Retallack said.

Phone and e-mail messages left for ATOP and an owner listed in online references to the company weren’t returned Tuesday.

Petaluma Fire Department Battalion Chief Jeff Holden said ATOP didn’t have a required city permit to dismantle the rusting boat, about half of which remains at the site.

It was unclear Tuesday whether ATOP had permission from the landowner to conduct such activity on the 100-acre plot that lies between the railroad tracks along Lakeville Road and the river.

“That’s not been determined,” Retallack said. “The how and why will help us determine who is responsible. The investigation will guide us.”

Christian Lind, a vice president of Jericho Products, a Petaluma-based tugboat, barging and dredging company on East D Street, said oil reached his land and vessels about 1,000 yards upriver.

“The oil moved up river and did get on our property and our vessels,” he said. “We want them to clean up the mess on our property and the entire river.”

He visited the cove Tuesday with an insurance representative trying to determine whom to contact from ATOP.

Retallack said Fish and Game investigators expect to be at the site for at least another day or two. The result could be an administrative case or a more extensive criminal investigation.

To that end, the absorbent pads — similar to puppy house-training pads — will retained as potential evidence of the amount of oil spilled, as will the gallons of water and oiled sucked up by the vacuum trucks.

“Our strategy is to get the vessel as clean as possible (of oil) and then get it out of there,” she said.

Jurisdiction of the river, technically a slough that feeds into the San Pablo Bay, involves several agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, state and federal Environmental Protection Agencies and the state department of Fish and Game.