Port, city ponder oil seeping into marina

Published 2:06 am Wednesday, January 17, 2007

PORT TOWNSEND – Oil moves slowly, but mixed with water it can travel far. So city and Port of Port Townsend officials learned after Jan. 8, when a small oil spill poured out of an 10-inch drain pipe into Boat Haven Marina.

The spill is believed to have washed from the parking lot of a Sims Way business near Haines Street into a Kah Tai Lagoon drain pipe.

Then it ran eastward to the marina, about a quarter-mile away.

The first such incident has Port of Port Townsend officials wondering why parking lots for businesses near Kah Tai Lagoon Park were tied into the 18-inch lagoon-to-marina stormwater drain pipe.

City officials, meanwhile, are thinking of oil-water separators for parking lot drains to catch future spills before they spread.