Lightering equipment reaches stern of Unalaska shipwreck

Lightering equipment reaches stern of Unalaska shipwreck

   Lightering equipment to be used to remove internal oil has been delivered by a heavy-lift helicopter to the stern section of the 'Selandang Ayu,' a soybean carrier that ran aground and split apart Dec. 8 on Unalaska Island near Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

   The equipment comprised pumps, generators, assorted small tools, power packs, reels of electrical cord, air compressors and hot tap units. A salvage crew working aboard the aft section of the vessel has secured the lightering gear to withstand worsening weather conditions, according to authorities at a unified command center in Dutch Harbor.

   Gale-force winds whipped up seas as high as 18 feet, as rain and fog set in over the weekend. Despite the poor conditions, environmental assessors had by Monday surveyed 130 miles of shoreline. They reported that only four and one-half miles of beach had been moderately oiled, and only a half-mile heavily oiled.

   'No sheening or oil was reported on the water or in the vicinity of the wreck,' said the unified command, which consists of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.