Doug Thron was strolling back to his houseboat on the Isle of Venice in Fort Lauderdale when he got a strong whiff of something ghastly.
“I thought ‘My God, what’s that smell?’” Thron said Tuesday.
It turned out to be diesel fuel from a boat that sank to the bottom of the canal on Saturday.
“I couldn’t even stay on my houseboat for the last few days because the smell is so strong,” Thron said. “The whole neighborhood is up in arms about it.”
Worried about the fuel spreading and possibly killing marine life, Thron says he and his neighbors called “everyone under the sun,” including the local fire department, the U.S. Coast Guard and officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, Thron says he was relieved to see the salvage company Tow Boat U.S.A. show up to remove the leaking boat.
Fort Lauderdale firefighters checked things out on Saturday after getting a complaint about the boat sinking, Fire Chief Stephen Gollan said
The firefighters alerted the Coast Guard.
“At that time, there were no leaks,” Gollan said. “On Sunday they went out again and noticed it was beginning to leak.”
Coast Guard officials were in touch with the owner by Monday, Gollan said.
“Tow Boat U.S.A. told us on Monday they were still waiting on approval from the owner to move the boat,” Gollan said.
In the meantime, the salvage company is cleaning up the immediate area where the boat sank, Gollan said.
But with tidal surge, some of the diesel fuel and possibly motor oil might have spread into nearby waterways, Gollan said. If the damage is widespread, Gollan said the city would hire a subcontractor to handle the cleanup and bill the owner. But it’s too soon to say if that’s the case, he said.
“We won’t know until the boat’s gone,” Gollan said.
The boat wasn’t towed away until just before 5 p.m.
Thron says he was stunned that no one took action right away.
“A boat like that could probably hold a few hundred gallons of fuel,” Thron said. “I would have thought in this day and age, there would have been a rapid response. To me, it was a huge deal. If a boat is leaking gas into a waterway, the government should be able to step in and remove it and figure out who pays later. Now the fuel is all over the canal.”
But government officials are required to first find the owner, said Mark Ercolin, an attorney specializing in maritime law.
“Here’s how it would usually go,” he said. “Boat sinks. First question is, who owns the boat? If they can’t find the owner, it becomes a big question of who pays the salvage company. … It’s not done for free.”
Thron says he’s worried about all the fish and manatees that swim up and down the canal. He hasn’t seen any since the boat started leaking on Sunday.
Nearby resident Suzee Bailey wondered why the city didn’t put up signs warning people about the fuel spill.
“We have signs when there’s heavy flooding,” Bailey said. “Do you think it’s healthy to be paddle boarding through those areas? People can smell the fumes, but what about what you can’t smell? My first concern is public safety. How can you worry about what you don’t know about?”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me @Susannah_Bryan