The Exxon Valdez oil spill will be forever burned into the memories of many. With large amounts of oil constantly moving through Puget Sound, the prospect of a similar catastrophe in the waters is a frightening possibility.
It’s just such a scenario that Freeland resident Dave Anderson explores in his recently published novel, “Spill: A Story of Oil & Orcas in the Salish Sea.”
The book has been released in the wake of energy giant Kinder Morgan’s proposed plans to triple the amount of bituminous oil traveling through the Salish Sea.
A library reading with Anderson was May 17 at the Langley Library.
“Spill” follows a family vacationing in the San Juan Islands whose trip is interrupted by a medium-sized oil spill off the western coast of Stuart Island in the Haro Strait that forces them into action in order to keep orca whales from entering the area.
“My book considers what it would be like to have a large oil spill in the Puget Sound, a scenario that is very possible,” Anderson said. “We’ve seen these things happen with the Exxon Valdez, which grounded in a 12-mile-wide strait.”
The Haro Strait in the Salish Sea, through which Kinder Morgan transports bituminous oil, is two miles wide.
Anderson is well versed on the subject of oil spills, according to Howard Garrett, co-owner of Orca Network.
He worked for 40 years as a sport and commercial fisherman in the Salish Sea and served four years as a governor’s appointee to the Oil Spill Prevention Task Force; Anderson is a former District 10 state representative.
“He definitely knows what he’s talking about and it’s a very well-informed book,” Garrett said. “It’s fiction, but every bit of it is possible. It amounts to a drill or a walk through on how to react to a spill.”
The impact an oil spill would have on orca whale populations in the Salish Sea would be devastating, according to Anderson. Oil coats their lungs which prevents proper breathing and compromises all of their organ systems, leading to a great chance of death.
The orcas in the Prince William Sound during the Exxon Valdez were devastated by the spill.
Half of the population died, and the remaining half haven’t been able to reproduce ever since, according to Anderson. Not a single calf has been born.
“This could happen right in our front yard,” Anderson said. “There is actually bituminous oil coming down to Admiralty Inlet to Tacoma. Not only does it put us at risk but a large spill near the San Juan Islands could easily make its way down to Whidbey Island.”
Storms and strong winds allow oil to travel fast. In the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez spill, the oil traveled 600 miles.
“This is timely because Kinder Morgan is in the permitting process as we speak,” Anderson said. “I felt that people would get a more visceral feel if I wrote it as a novel rather than another report of a spill.”
