Clean Up Starts in Robson Bight

Footage of the wreckage in Robson Bight

The Robson Bight clean up effort to recover a fully laden fuel truck and a container of hydraulic oil barrels starts this month, almost two years after a barge tipped 11 pieces of equipment in this important ecological reserve. The equipment that spilled into the water contained an estimated 19,000 litres of petroleum.

It is unfortunate that only select pieces of equipment will be recovered: "the provincial and federal governments have decided, mainly because of cost, that the rest of the equipment, including vehicles, log loaders, a grappleyarder, bulldozer and ambulance, will be left on the bottom of the ocean."1

The federal and provincial government are sharing the costs of the clean up operation, which is estimated at about $2.5 million.