Tanker Runs Aground

The Coast Guard is monitoring a tanker that ran aground in East Rockaway Inlet, NY about 450 yards from shore. Poling and Cutler Marine, the owners of the tanker, notified the Coast Guard Sector in New Haven, CT, that the tanker ran aground on sandy bottom and is carrying 672,000 gallons of #2 home heating oil. Coast Guard pollution response officers report that the ship suffered no apparent hull breach and no oil product entered the water. A unified Command consisting of New York DEC, Nassau County PD and FD, Hempstead Bay Constable, Coast Guard and Poling and Cutler, has been established to monitor the situation, develop plans to refloat the vessel and to develop as contingency plans in the case of a cargo release. Plans call for Poling and Cutler Marine, operators of the 281-foot coastal tank ship Kristin Poling, to lighter the tank ship and use tugs to pull it off the sandy bottom at high tide.

Though the single-hulled tank ship suffered no hull breach and the ship is on a sandy bottom, Captain Peter Boynton, Coast Guard Captain of the Port for Long Island Sound, directed Poling and Cutler to ensure adequate pollution containment and recovery equipment can be deployed should worst-case discharge occur. Coast Guard officers are monitoring the situation from aboard the Kristin Poling and small boats from Coast Guard Station Jones Beach. Coast Guard helicopters from Air Station Atlantic City have conducted over flights of the area. The sea state in East Rockaway Inlet is reported at 4-6 foot seas and 10-15 knot south westerly winds when the Kristin Poling grounded. The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the grounding.