San Francisco: An operation to remove a bulk cargo vessel from a wreck site in Nova Scotia turned problematic when it leaked a substantial amount of its oil cargo, officials revealed on Friday.
The incident happened on Thursday when contractor, RJ MacIsaac Construction was trying to remove the MV Miner off Scaterie Island where it had grounded in 2011 while being towed for scrap.
About 800 litres of oil was collected after it leaked during the final stages of removing the wreck, a provincial government spokesman revealed.
A spokesman for Nova Scotia’s Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal said that the oil was inside an engine that was being removed from the derelict vessel and seeping from one pipe in particular.
Once it was established a leak had happened, oil containment booms were placed around the wreckage and oil absorption materials were on-site before trying to remove the engine.
The bulker, owned by Arvina Navigation SA of Turkey, ran aground on Scaterie Island in September 2011 while under tow from Turkey to Montreal.
