News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 22, 2004
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136
Alt Contact:  Sheryl Hutchison, Department of Ecology, 360-407-7004; Andre Billeaudeaux, U.S. Coast Guard, 206-220-7237

Gov. Gary Locke Tours Maury Island Beach, Calls for Action on Oil Spill Response

Gov. Gary Locke today toured spill-affected areas of South Maury Island and announced the creation of a task force to examine new and effective ways to respond to oil spills during bad weather.

Joining Locke was U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Rear Admiral Jeffery Garrett, USCG Captain Danny Ellis, and state Department of Ecology Director Linda Hoffman.

“As we’ve seen over the past week, there’s no such thing as a ‘small’ oil spill in Puget Sound,” Locke said. “Whether it’s 1,000 gallons or 100,000 gallons, the unique currents and weather conditions of Puget Sound make it difficult to recover.”

Locke and Garrett announced a special working group to explore possible improvements to the state’s system of preparedness and response. They will focus on incidents that occur in unusual conditions like last week’s spill. The group will be composed of a diverse set of interests, including environmentalists, and will make their recommendations to the governor and admiral.

“This incident represented the worst possible scenario for a spill and highlighted the constraints in detecting and responding to spills that occur in the middle of the night, in heavy fog, with an unknown spiller, at an unknown site and with an uncontained source,” Locke said. “I want this task force to devise ways to overcome these constraints.”

Locke also called for purchasing infrared capability for state-contracted helicopters and state-owned or state–contracted boats used in spill response and the creation of a citizen oil spill response corps throughout Puget Sound to aid spill responders. Locke also called for the establishment of a “telephone tree” that spill-response officials could use to enlist the help of citizens in locating and verifying reports of oil spills of unknown origin.


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