On Monday, Dec. 3, at Public Service of New Hampshire’s Schiller Station in Portsmouth, 80 gallons of thick No. 6 oil poured into the Piscataqua River. The oil was released from an oil line relief valve in one of the holding tanks that morning, and about 50 gallons of the spill made it into the Piscataqua River and were not recovered. About 20 to 30 gallons were cleaned up, according to New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services spokesman Jim Martin.

For those concerned about the health of the river, the spill raises the question of who responds to oil spills and what resources the towns and agencies bordering Portsmouth Harbor have in case of a larger spill.

While there hasn’t been a major oil spill in Portsmouth Harbor and surrounding tributaries in several years, the waters of the harbor are not virgin territory for large spills. In 1978, the oil barge B-105, owned by Steamboat Tug Alladin Inc., released 7,000 gallons of No. 6 oil into the Piscataqua River through a crack in the ship’s holding tank while loading at the Atlantic Terminal in Newington. The following year, the Liberian tanker New Concord dumped 25,000 gallons of No. 6 oil into the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth after a valve was either stuck or left open, releasing the oil. More recently, in 1996, the tanker Provence dumped 1,000 gallons of No. 6 oil in the water when the mooring lines snapped while unloading at PSNH’s Schiller Station, causing the fuel transfer lines to tear.

No. 6 oil is generally used for industrial burners, steam boilers, and power generators. It’s much thicker than No. 2 oil, the type commonly used in home heating.

Approximately 50 million gallons, or about 200,000 tons, of oil and gasoline are transported monthly on tankers through Portsmouth Harbor, according to Richard Holt Jr., boat pilot for Portsmouth Pilots Inc., who helps guide tankers into the harbor.

Every vessel carrying oil that enters the harbor must have a pilot on board, says Holt, who navigates tankers that are up to 750 feet in length and can carry anywhere from 30,000 to 65,000 tons in dead weight. The three customers and distributors of oil in the harbor are Irving Oil Corporation, PSNH, and Sprague Energy.

Response plans for oil and other hazardous waste spills are set on the local, state, and national levels.
After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, the U.S. government signed into law the Oil Pollution Act, which created a national Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to provide up to $1 billion dollars per spill incident. The OPA also detailed new requirements for contingency planning and divided the country into area committees, composed of federal, state, and local government officials. These area committees design contingency plans specific to the coast they protect to deal with hazards of all types, including hazardous materials and oil spills, natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

New Hampshire is part of the Northern New England sector, which runs from the Canada-Maine border down to the New Hampshire-Massachusetts border. Under the act, owners and operators of vessels and facilities at risk must prepare their own response plans, according to Rick Berry, supervisor of the Spill Response and Complaint Investigation Section of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

“We have all different types of scenarios for all different types of spills,” says Berry. “We’ll bring in more resources if local capabilities get overwhelmed.”

The size of the spill and the amount of resources needed determines whether local response teams need to go to the state or national level for aid, says Berry. Working with the Piscataqua River Co-op., made up of the three oil companies, the Portsmouth Fire Department, the United States Coast Guard, and other port industries and users, the Department of Environmental Services periodically reviews and updates the area contingency plan with new strategies to improve spill response.

“The bottom line is you try and stop the spill, contain the spill, and limit the environmental impact through containment and rapid response,” says Berry.

For most spills, first responders appear at the scene in a matter of minutes and begin containing the spill using booms.

The Portsmouth Fire Department is often a first responder, says Captain Vassilios Pamboukes. The department trains twice a year with the Piscataqua River Co-op members, running through mock emergencies. The co-op has equipment positioned throughout the harbor and river, like skimmers (boats designed to “skim” the surface of the water and collect the oil) and booms.

“The PRC is prepared to respond to their own immediate area and to extend their resources and technical assistance to anywhere it’s called for,” says Pamboukes.

For larger emergencies all the resources in the immediate area can be used, but the protection of the harbor and surrounding tributaries depends on the cooperation of partners, some as far away as Portland and Boston.   

“It’s all about partnerships,” says Pamboukes. “Everybody who has a vested interest has a role and responsibilities (in coastal protection).”

For larger spills hundreds of people may be involved in clean-up, says Pamboukes, requiring local officials to seek resources from these partners.

PSNH contracted with Clean Harbors, an environmental and hazardous waste management service, to clean the recent spill at Schiller Station. Usually the organization that caused the spill will contract a company to clean it up, says spokesman Martin.

The Department of Environmental Services also has a contract with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research Society, a nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation organization that can respond to oil-infected wildlife.

The state sets standards for soil and water cleanliness based upon the individual components of petroleum still found in the area, says Berry. Only when the levels of containments are low enough, based on lab testing, is the site considered clean.  

The Department of Environmental Services is currently awaiting a final report on whether Schiller Station site has passed cleaning standards, according to Martin. The state will not fine PSNH for the spill.