Navy: 500 gallons of jet fuel spill from carrier

BREMERTON, Wash. -- The Navy and the Washington state Ecology Department say about 500 gallons of jet fuel spilled from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln into Bremerton's Sinclair Inlet but the spill was quickly contained.

A Navy statement says Thursday afternoon's spill involved about 1,500 gallons of a seawater and jet fuel mixture that spilled from an overflow pipe on the side of the ship at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

About 500 gallons of that was fuel.

A containment boom had already been set up around the Lincoln as a standard precaution. Ecology spokesman Larry Altose says another boom was set up shortly after the spill.

The leak was stopped and two skimmers were used to vacuum up the kerosene-like fuel.

Altose tells the Kitsap Sun that 500 gallons could have left a sheen over much of the inlet had it not been contained. He praised the Navy's response as "very good."

The Navy, Coast Guard and Ecology are investigating the cause of the leak.

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