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A rainbow-colored slick on Oriental Harbor prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to investigate the source of a fuel spill last week.

Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop checked in with the USCG this week, to learn more about the issue.

“The spill was a light diesel fuel, and the Coast Guard took some samples of a suspected vessel that they think is the source, and those samples are in the lab in New Haven, Connecticut, with the goal of matching the fingerprint of the diesel in the spill to the diesel in the suspected vessel’s bilge,” Samantha said.

She added the agency said neither absorbents nor skimming would sufficiently remove the fuel, the only option for its removal was to wait for the sun to burn off the remaining fuel.

Those on the ground in Oriental said the spill seem to originated from the area where Fulcher’s Point Pride Seafood trawlers are docked.  

It’s not the first time Fulcher’s has come to the attention of government agencies, Samantha said.

In March of 2022, the company received notices of violation for back-to-back incidents involving grinding paint from vessels — one of which was docked, the other out in open water — resulting in paint chips and dust creating debris fields in the water. The latter incident was deemed “willful” by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Though NCDEQ issued a civil penalty of $21,588.98 to Fulcher’s in March 2023, the paperwork was incorrect. New notices of violation were issued in June of 2023, however, the civil penalty has never been re-issued.

Samantha said the Coast Guard should have more information to share when lab results are returned next week.

“I’m super-excited to hear what they have to say about the lab results,” she said.

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