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CHARLOTTE AMALIE, St. Thomas - Pollution and salvage responders will continue operations through the weekend to safely remove the grounded Bonnie G off Cyril E. King Airport.
Pollution responders are working to remove any pollutants on the motor vessel and get it ready to bring port side for repairs. Skimmers are working to remove any oil contained in the vessel. As of Oct. 12, 1,874 gallons of oil was removed.
Salvage responders are working to bring in a coral-safe vessel to remove the fuel from the vessel. Once the fuel is removed, the plan is to refloat the vessel and bring it to an undecided location for repairs.
“The schedule moving forward is fluid,” said Lt. Cmdr. Christopher O’Connor, current incident commander for the Bonnie G response. “The responsible party is being cooperative and working with the contracted oil spill removal and salvage responders to safely remove the Bonnie G with as minimal impact to the environment as possible.”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration experts are conducting environmental and marine life impact surveys in the impacted area.
The Bonnie G, a 195-foot Vanuatu-flagged “ro-ro” cargo vessel and can hold a maximum of 119,450 gallons of fuel, and the maximum oil is 4,219. The vessel was carrying six cars, a truck, a trailer and two pallets of cargo.
To read the previous releases related to this response, please visit our newsroom.