High waves challenge for crews lifting sunken tugboat off B.C. coast
BELLA BELLA, B.C. – As crews prepare the daunting task of lifting a 30-metre tug that sank off British Columbia’s central coast, the local First Nation says the federal government is hiding information about the environmental impact of the incident.
More than 100,000 litres of diesel and other pollutants were spilled when the Nathan E. Stewart ran aground on Oct. 13, about 28 kilometres from the community of Bella Bella and just off the coast of the Great Bear Rainforest.
A release from the Heiltsuk Nation says the federal government is withholding findings from early environmental assessments of the site.
The release says analytic data from samples collected by the federal Fisheries Department that were passed on to the Environment Ministry have not been made available to the Heiltsuk Nation.