Ross Doherty starts cleaning parts of the Bridge Marina. Photo / John Borren
Ross Doherty starts cleaning parts of the Bridge Marina. Photo / John Borren
Workers in protective gear cleaned parts of the shoreline in Maungatapu after a large oil leak in the harbour from a Mobil fuel pipeline.
Clean-up workers were deployed yesterday with the Bay of Plenty Times photographing them piling oil-coated vegetation and debris into plastic bags along the shore at Maungatapu.
Scroll down for a gallery of the images
Maungatapu oil spill clean up.
An unknown amount of oil leaked into Tauranga Harbour on Monday from a pipeline, with sludgy, black clumps of oil found as far away as Maungatapu.
The clean-up operation comes as Mobil last night announced there was little remaining trace of fuel oil on the water.
Mobil also apologised for the spill and said it would ultimately pay any direct costs incurred in the response and clean-up, and consider claims for damage.
Regional council workers Nathan Capper (left) and Reece Irving wear protective suits while cleaning up. Photo / George Novak
Mobil's comments came just hours after Port of Tauranga chief executive Mark Cairns described the spill as "really heartbreaking".
He said while Mobil owned and operated the pipeline, the port was not "washing its hands" of the spill.
"We will be working closely with Mobil to ensure it doesn't happen again and to get it cleaned up as soon as possible."
A regional council worker inspects the shoreline on Turret Rd. Photo / John Borren
Mr Cairns said no oil spill was acceptable. Mobil New Zealand public affairs manager Samantha Potts told the Bay of Plenty Times Mobil was refuelling a ship on the water on Monday when a sheen was observed.
"We immediately shut down our fuelling operations at the wharf. We have identified the sheen was originating from a fuel pipe line, which was shut down straight away and is still currently shut down."
Ms Potts said Monday's rough weather had helped disperse the fuel.
A boat in Tauranga Marina with oil on its hull.
"The priority is containing any remaining fuel oil on the water and cleaning up any impacts on the local environment."
Mobil is working with Bay of Plenty Regional Council to assess the situation and respond as needed, Ms Potts said.
At this stage, Mobil had no idea of the volume of fuel that leaked into the harbour, she said.
"We don't know what the cause [of the leak] was. There was a leak from the pipe line as far as we can tell.
"There will be a full investigation to understand why this happened."
Mobil also urged affected boat owners to get their vessels cleaned by experts.
Tauranga Bridge Marina manager Tony Arnold saw the leak unfold. "We looked out the window and saw a big, solid calm patch in a windy harbour and were like "holy smoke, look at that". It just came flying in, like whoosh. There was thick contamination within two minutes."
Mr Arnold said there would not have been time to deploy booms.
He phoned the oil spill response team and was yesterday busy contacting boat owners to let them know of the situation.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council regional on scene commander Adrian Heays said the amount of oil spilled was still unknown, but all shorelines were being checked including Pilot Bay and Matakana Island.
Staff were out in boats and in a helicopter checking Tauranga Harbour yesterday and no more oil was found on the water.
"It is important that people don't try to clean up the oil themselves. This is heavy fuel oil and is persistent in the environment.
