Ottawa announces $4.9M oil recovery operation on B.C. shipwreck from 1946

Oil leaking from the long-sunken ship in B.C.'s Grenville Channel on May 2, 2012. (Handout)

The federal government is spending $4.9 million to remove a load of heavy oil from a United States military ship that sank off the coast of British Columbia nearly 80 years ago but now poses "significant risk" of a major spill due to deterioration.

Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier announced the multimillion-dollar contract in a news release Thursday, saying U.S.-based salvage company Resolve Marine would begin removing the oil that has been welling up from the U.S. Army transport ship since it went down in 1946.

The wreck of the Brigadier General M.G. Zalinski is located near Pitt Island in the Grenville Channel, part of the Inside Passage shipping route that extends from southern B.C. to Alaska.

The ship was carrying military supplies and heavy fuel oil from Seattle to Whittier, Alaska, when it struck a shoal and went down in a storm. All 48 crewmembers on board survived the sinking and were rescued by vessel operators in the area.

According to the B.C. government, the transport ship came to a rest upside down on a rock ledge in about 30 metres of water, and has been the source of "numerous small oil leaks" over the years as its fuel tanks deteriorate.

The Canadian Coast Guard launched an initial savage operation in 2013, removing all of the bulk oil that was accessible at the time. Crews have returned to the wreck periodically in the years since, removing thousands of litres of oil as the fuel shifted inside the hull.

"Since then, the ship's structure has continued to deteriorate, causing previously inaccessible fuel tanks to collapse," the coast guard said in the news release. "This new state of deterioration poses a significant risk of releasing a large amount of oil into the marine environment."

Jeff Brady, superintendent of marine environmental hazard response with the Canadian Coast Guard, estimates the ship was carrying 700,000 litres of oil and several tonnes of military cargo, including vehicles and ammunition, when it sank in the narrow channel.

A technical assessment was completed on the wreck last summer to determine the integrity of the hull and where the estimated 27,000 litres of remaining oil was located.

"The results from that really gave us some concern about the rate of upwelling. We did see oil coming to the surface so we just really need to respond to that," Brady said in an interview Thursday.

"With so much uncertainty about the hull's condition and with some additional certainty of the quantity of oil on board, that was really some of the triggers that led the coast guard to initiate this operation."

The salvage operation is expected to begin later this month, requiring several weeks as workers use a process known as "hot tapping" to attach drainage valves and hoses to the hull and then pump the oil into holding tanks on a surface barge.

The coast guard says the same method was used to successfully remove roughly 60 tonnes of fuel from the MV Schiedyk wreck off Vancouver Island in 2021.

"Given the nature of the operation, there is a small risk of a release of oil while draining," according to the release. "Canadian Coast Guard personnel are on-site and ready to respond if needed."

The agency is completing the work alongside the Gitga’at and Gitxaala First Nations, which are assisting in the marine response.