Clean up of an oil spill from a long unused pipe at the Port of Astoria is complete as of this week and the state will not require follow-up remediation at this time.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Coast Guard will continue to monitor affected areas over the next two weeks, according to a spokesperson for the state.
The spill was first reported at the end of May as an oil sheen coming out from beneath the port’s Pier 2. Response crews determined the oil originated from a previously undocumented fueling pipeline system under the pier that contained bunker oil and appears to have sat unused for around 50 years.
As of Monday, the state reports cleanup crews have recovered more than 11 tons of oily waste and 3,249 gallons of oily water. The areas affected by the spill included beneath Pier 2 and along the adjacent shoreline. The section of pipe that discharged the oil has been removed. The remaining piping was capped.
Port Executive Director Will Isom said the good news is the bunker fuel was contained within the slip and did not get out into the main channel of the Columbia River.
“At this point, our focus kind of shifts towards how do we pay for this?” Isom told port commissioners at a recent meeting. “Because getting a $2.5 million surprise like this over pipes that, the best we can tell, have not been in use for close to five decades is just unfortunate.”
Also unfortunate, he added, is that major rehabilitation work on Pier 2 has been delayed. In 2023, the port landed a $25 million grant to rehabilitate the western side of the pier, but the project has been mired in the permitting process for several years now.
“Had that gone quicker and we started construction, this would have never been an issue,” Isom said. “But we’re dealing with a pier that’s in really bad shape.”
Pier 2, which is home to seafood processing operations, has been a long-standing issue for the port, in particular the pier’s west side where use and exposure have resulted in seawall damage and deteriorating pilings. The structure has been subject to weight restrictions since 2017 as a result.
Some parts of the pier have had to be closed off. According to Isom, the port made several emergency repairs last year in order to keep parts of the pier open and allow processors to continue operating there.
“It feels like we’re just sort of putting bandaids on this thing until we can get a real fix in place,” he said.