Fungal Growth Plugged Fuel Filters on WSF Ferry, Causing Grounding

The latest grounding of the ferry Walla Walla close to Bremerton, Washington was attributable to “gross bacterial and fungal growth” in its gas provide system, resulting in extreme gas filter plugging and lack of energy, in accordance with operator Washington State Ferries.

Walla Walla misplaced energy and ran aground close to Lynwood Center, Bainbridge Island on the afternoon of April 15. At 1632 hours, the vessel was approaching Point Glover making about 18 knots. The captain was within the pilothouse, standing watch, and noticed a number of alarms for the propulsion management system start to go off. Alarms indicated that each ends of the double-ended ferry had misplaced energy. In the engine room, the oilers and chief engineer struggled to deliver energy again on-line, however the engines wouldn’t keep regular energy. 

At 1635, the captain ordered the crew to drop anchor, then sounded the final alarm and ordered passengers to brace for affect. One minute later, Walla Walla slid gently onto a smooth mud backside and got here to a cease with an “almost imperceptible” transition from afloat to aground. She had sustained no harm aside from scraped paint. 

The crew didn’t but know this, and the captain ordered preparations for abandoning ship. The Walla Walla had a staged evacuation plan; the primary stage known as for mustering passengers, distributing lifejackets, and deploying life rafts and slides. During this stage, communications among the many crew had been restricted by a scarcity of handheld radios, and passengers weren’t all prepared to cooperate: some didn’t consider the casualty was severe and wished to remain of their vehicles; others wished to return to their vehicles after they discovered that they’d be aboard for an prolonged interval; others tried to problem the crew’s authority. The captain determined to name for a police presence to assist hold order on the passenger deck, and this had the specified calming impact.

That night, all passengers had been evacuated to 2 different ferries operated by Kitsap Transit, and the final one was off the Walla Walla at 2210. A tug efficiently towed the grounded ferry again to deep water at about 0030, and the stricken vessel was taken again to a pier in Bremerton for analysis. 

An inspection revealed that the Racor filters for the 2 ships’ service turbines had been plugged with “black sludge.” Samples examined optimistic for heavy bacterial or fungal development. The supply didn’t seem like from the bunker provider: The newly-bunkered gas within the ferry’s foremost tanks was clear and dry, lab exams revealed. 

WSF discovered that the vessel’s twin day tanks had each been contaminated with water on account of human error. At some level up to now, the ferry’s oilers had primed the centrifugal separator utilizing contemporary water, and this water had been discharged into the day tanks. The water within the tanks supplied the medium for the microbial development that plugged the engines. “Priming the separator with the very contaminant it is designed to extract from the diesel fuel . . . would have contributed to moisture in the day tanks,” WSF concluded in its investigative report. 

In their suggestions, WSF’s investigators concluded that it might be finest to enhance working procedures and technical supervision for priming the centrifugal separator. 

Local media inferred that the vessel’s superior age was a contributing issue to the casualty, however lack of energy from gas contamination can happen on any vessel – even the newly-delivered Aiviq, an ultra-high-spec icebreaker which suffered filter and fuel-injection failures within the Gulf of Alaska in 2013.