Thousands of gallons of diesel from Navy ship at Vigor spill into Elliott Bay

| Environment | Seen at sea | West Seattle news

(Washington Ecology Department photo)
Cleanup work continues tonight at Vigor Shipyard on Harbor Island, where the state Department of Ecology says up to 5,000 gallons of diesel spilled into Elliott Bay.

According to Ecology’s announcement, it happened this afternoon while the USS Sampson was having fuel removed, and a hose failed, sending thousands of gallons into the bay, in an area that had been “pre-boomed” before the removal. Ecology says it’s working with the Navy, Coast Guard, and “response contractors” on the cleanup.

We happened to photograph the Everett-based Sampson (DDG 102) as it was headed toward Vigor last Monday.

(WSB photo, July 6)

Vigor has a quarter-billion-dollar contract for repairs, maintenance, and modernization work on the Sampson.

WS since 2008 July 14, 2026 (12:17 am)

What a horrible accident. Do you know if they need volunteers to help clean up the shoreline? I’m not sure what particular effect diesel has on the shore and creatures/birds, but would love to do something to help.

Marina July 14, 2026 (6:52 am)

The good news is that the boom should have contained most of the diesel. It’s light, so won’t sink in the water column. For the most part, small spills up to 5K gallons should evaporate in a day or two and it would be surprising if anything made it to shore. I’ve worked for both NOAA Corps (on the ships) and the clean up companies that deal with spills, and this one seems pretty simple to clean. They’ll throw a bunch of diapers (square absorbent material) at it, let them soak up any remaining diesel, collect them, and call it a day. I will say it’s rather convenient that they’re reporting 5K gallons, as that’s the upper limit of what’s reported as a “small spill”.
- The Real JP July 14, 2026 (9:43 am)
  
  Very informative – I had no idea how this works. Thanks for sharing.

Morgan July 14, 2026 (1:10 am)

NOAA posts some info about spills of this size for cleanup and what happens in marine environments next: https://dec.alaska.gov/spar-data/ppr/response/sum_fy10/100111201/NOAAFactsheet_Diesel.pdf

IMHO July 14, 2026 (8:10 am)

Thank you for posting this information!

Sarchka July 14, 2026 (6:11 am)

Very curious what one gets for $1/4 billion. Seems like it should be a new ship, but I am naive as to budgets so large.

MIC July 14, 2026 (11:38 am)

Vigor Marine is owned by a private-equity company. So someone gets a new ship (yacht) out of this, but it isn’t the tax payers.