WATER AROUND TANKER TO BE TREATED

By The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO- Seawater trapped in a drydock holding the Exxon Valdez will be pumped into a barge and taken to a treatment facility to avoid possible contamination of San Diego Bay, a shipyard official said Wednesday.

The 987foot tanker caused the nation's worst oil spill. It was moved Tuesday from its berth at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. to a drydock where it will undergo a $25 million, ninemonth repair job.

NASSCO spokesman Fred Hallett said Wednesday that over the next four days millions of gallons of water in the drydock will be pumped into a barge for transport out to sea before being transferred into the Exxon New Orleans. The New Orleans then will transport the water to a treatment facility in northern California for processing.

Originally, water in the dock was to be tested to determine if it was contaminated, and if tests came back negative, the water would be pumped back into the bay.

NASSCO officials, after meeting with representatives of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, decided not to take any chances with the water, Hallett said.

"We will err on the side of conservatism," Hallett said. "We elected not to see if it's clean enough to pump back into the bay. We're just going to pump it into a barge and then eventually have it treated as contaminated water."

The tanker, which spilled 11 million gallons of oil when its hull ripped after hitting a reef on March 24 in Alaska's Prince William Sound, was moved into San Diego Bay on July 30. It had arrived off the California coast on July 10, but its move into the bay was stalled for three weeks because of what appeared to be an oil slick near the vessel.

Hallett said once the water is pumped from the drydock, the Valdez will rest on support blocks that will allow workers to repair the ship.

State and federal investigators and other examiners also are scheduled to arrive later to inspect the ship as part of the investigation of the oil spill.

In the meantime, workers will continue fabricating 3,600 tons of steel needed to repair the right front hull of the 209,000ton ship, Hallett said.

"We're doing engineering work and steel preparation work right now. We don't anticipate cutting it apart for another two weeks," Hallett said.

During the ship's movement to the graving dock Tuesday, patches of a bluish slick were found trailing the ship. Two Exxon vessels trailing the ship took samples for a later analysis, but Exxon spokeswoman Carrie Chassin said the substance may have been stirred by the eight tugboats guiding the Exxon.

"It appeared to have been kicked up from the bottom," said Coast Guard spokesman Chief Quartermaster Mark Vavra.

NASSCO spokesman Dick Vortmann also said the substance might have been from algae material from the ship's ballast tanks.

Exxon Shipping Co. plans to return the Valdez to service, though possibly under a different name, after the repairs are completed.

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