As Baltimore cleans up its latest Harbor oil spill, here's a look at 10 others
In August 1975, a Shell Oil barge leaked 135,000 gallons of heavy oil into the water at Wagner's Point in South Baltimore. Five years earlier, the same barge, the Shamrock, discharged 67,000 gallons of black ooze that fouled the harbor and its environs. Fish kills were reported as far away as Riviera Beach, and residents along Rock Creek worked desperately to clean ducks soaked in oil.
That spill, in July 1970, was the worst ever to pollute the harbor until the 1975 disaster. Floating muck from the latter spill reached Sollers Point before it was contained by floating booms and siphoned into vacuum trucks for $1.5 million. State officials at the time declared there was 'no evidence of serious environmental damage' caused by the spill. Both accidents were blamed on negligence; workmen fell asleep during the barge's fueling.
Wednesday's spill was the 11th reported in the Inner Harbor and the first since 1989. Seven spills occurred in one decade (the 1970s), with three of them in 1970 alone. Six of the accidents befouled the harbor with 2,000 gallons of oil or more.
A chronology of the spills:
July 1968: A pipe burst at a Humble Oil tank farm at Quail and Boston Streets, leaking 3,500 gallons of oil into the harbor.
Sept. 1969: 70,000 gallons of heating oil poured out of a faulty valve at Hess Oil's storage dump in Curtis Bay. About 200 gallons reached the harbor.
April 1970: The Army Corps of Engineers found a 4,000-gallon oil spill beneath the Penwood Wharf at Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point plant.
July 1970: Oil gushed for one hour from vents on an overflowing barge at Shell's marine terminal at Wagner's Point. The slick from the 67,000 gallon spill spread 15 miles.
Sept. 1970: More than 500 gallons of heavy, crude oil streamed out of the Aegis Star as the tanker was delivering oil at the American Oil terminal at Wagner's Point. The spill created a slick 1/2 mile long and 1/4 mile wide; the tanker's operators were found at fault.
February 1971: 'Mechanical failure' was blamed when a fueling barge discharged 2,000 gallons of oil into the harbor at the Dundalk Marine Terminal.
June 1971: At least 1,000 gallons of fuel oil leaked into the harbor after a merchant ship punctured its side while docking at a Canton terminal. The oil was quickly contained. The next day, in an unrelated spill, 2,000 gallons of oil stained a mile of shoreline at the mouth of Stony Creek. The offender was never found.
Dec. 1972: While loading fuel from a barge at Locust Point, a Liberian freighter spilled 500 gallons of crude oil into the harbor. The operator of the freighter was fined $6,000.
Aug. 1975: In the largest spill in Baltimore history, 135,000 gallons of heavy industrial oil poured from a barge's overflowing tank and into the harbor for two hours after a duty officer nodded off. Most of the oil was recovered.
July 1989: Nearly 300 gallons of oil were found in the waters near Harborplace. While a British frigate was berthed there, no blame was ever reported.
Have a news tip? Contact Mike Klingaman at jklingaman@baltsun.com and 410-332-6456.
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