Pilot initially thought ship’s damage was minor

Pelosi has 'very serious concerns'
On Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and several members of the Bay Area’s congressional delegation joined Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen and Rear Adm. Craig Bone along the bay.

Pelosi questioned Bone about the Coast Guard response, specifically the time lapse in releasing the full extent of the spill to the public. Agency officials learned the true extent of the spill several hours before local officials and the public were notified.

“We have very, very serious concerns about how this transpired and the timing,” Pelosi said. “There are many questions that have been raised.”

Earlier, Allen defended his agency’s response to the spill while pledging a full investigation.

“On the surface it would appear that we did everything by the book in this case as far as responding,” Allen told The Associated Press while en route from Washington, D.C., to survey the damage.

“However, having done this work for over 36 years, nothing is as it seems at the start,” he said. “We need to recover all the information, make sure all the facts are established.”

Damage, visibility hampered assessment
Allen said it may have taken time to figure out the extent of the spill partly because gear used to measure how much fuel is in the oil tank was damaged by the crash. He also noted the poor visibility at the time — a quarter-mile to an eighth-mile in fog.

“You don’t turn 900-foot vessels on a dime,” he said. “And given the visibility at the time I think it would be difficult to assess whether or not the bridge itself was visible.”

More than 12,000 gallons of the oil had been recovered by Monday, but much of it never will be, the Coast Guard said. Some will evaporate or dissipate and be absorbed into the environment.

Wednesday’s spill was the biggest in the area since 1988, when 400,000 gallons of oil spilled after a Shell refinery drain line broke. Another spill in 1996 poured 40,000 gallons of oil into the bay from a military vessel near Pier 70.

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