Floating Burlingame restaurant faces fines for paint spill
Polyurethane paint leached into water from Burlingame's Sherman steamship (by Shaun Bishop
Daily News Staff Writer)
A paint job gone wrong at a floating restaurant in Burlingame could mean tens of thousands of dollars in fines and cleanup costs for the boat's owners.
San Mateo County prosecutors are in the process of negotiating the penalties with the owners of The Sherman, a 1920s-era steamship that now hosts an upscale American restaurant.
Both sides now acknowledge that a paint not meant to be constantly submerged in water was applied to The Sherman's hull at low tide on Nov. 21, 2007. When the tide came in, it washed the burgundy polyurethane paint off the boat, leaving a 75-foot by 100-foot sheen on Sanchez Creek, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 25, 2008, by the district attorney's office.
Now, the district attorney's office wants the restaurant to pay the $33,783 emergency cleanup bill for the spill and up to $55,000 in fines for violating several state laws.
The Sherman's general manager, Ivor Bradley, told MediaNews that the paint job was part of nearly $4 million in renovations that the boat's owners made before the restaurant's launch a year ago.
He said the spill was an accident and that the owners of the boat, which is moored at 410 Airport Blvd., hope to settle the lawsuit and move on. "Damage is done, we understand that, and we just want to move forward and pay and try and ensure it doesn't happen again, and it won't happen again," Bradley said.
The two sides have been negotiating the amount of the fines for several months, though the requirement to pay for the cleanup is non-negotiable, said Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Hill. "That's what it cost the taxpayers to clean it up and it's not fair for them to bear the burden," she said.
After a passerby saw the red sheen on the water and called 911, firefighters and environmental health workers were able to quickly contain the spill with floating booms, Hill said. They finished removing the paint with an absorbent material the morning of Nov. 22, 2007, Thanksgiving Day, she said. Aside from a few paint flakes found on nearby plants, the spill caused no apparent damage to marine life or the water quality, Hill said.
Tension over water pollution was high at the time of the accident, just two weeks after the cargo ship Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge and spilled 58,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay.
Emergency workers suspected the paint was from The Sherman, but the owners declined to pay for the cleanup until the source of the pollution was established, according to the lawsuit. Hill said subsequent tests showed the substance in the water matched the paint that was used on The Sherman.
Bradley said The Sherman's paint supplier was at least partially to blame, since the boat's owners ordered paint that is meant for submerged boat hulls. He said the supplier sent the wrong kind. "We didn't check it. We just assumed it was the right paint because they had been giving us the correct paint all along," Bradley said. "It was the wrong paint which just floated off the ship."
Hill said the painters still should have known that they were using the paint incorrectly, since the product had a warning label saying it was not recommended for "constant immersion" in water and should be left to dry for at least seven days.
The lawsuit seeks fines for four violations of California law prohibiting improper disposal of hazardous waste, including portions of the health and safety, business and professions, and Fish & Game codes. It names Dago Mary's, the parent company of The Sherman, along with principals Eileen Long and Brian Maloney and supervisor Joseph Fitzgerald.
- Written by Fiona
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