A witness is expected to testify she watched killer whales swim through oil and diesel fuel just after a barge tipped and dumped logging equipment into a sensitive ecological area in the summer of 2007.

But the key issue in the trial revolving around the Robson Bight spill will be, who was responsible for the old barge?

“Suffice to say, it wasn’t in pristine condition,” said federal Crown prosecutor Digby Kier.

Bankrupt Chemainus-based logging firm Ted Leroy Trucking and Campbell River’s Gowlland Towing are charged with unlawfully discharging a pollutant, depositing a deleterious substance, permitting a discharge of oil and depositing a substance harmful to migratory birds and two counts of depositing a substance harmful to migratory birds.

Ted Leroy Trucking, which has since gone into bankruptcy protection, was the registered owner of the “Crown Forest 84-12” barge.

However, according to Kier, Ted Leroy Trucking is still active in B.C., despite being in receivership. Company patriarch Ted Leroy was expected to testify after press time, but was not represented in court for the opening of the trial.

All three parties have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The Crown’s position is that Gowlland Towing looked after, and sometimes maintained, the barge, which was anchored at Middle Point, located a few kilometres north of Campbell River.

But according to defence lawyer Russ Chamberlain, who is representing Gowlland and and Carl Strom, the captain of the tugboat Kathy L, Ted Leroy Trucking was responsible for the condition, maintenance and loading of the Crown Forest. In a brief opening address, he maintained the tug captain, crew and company performed its due diligence in towing the barge and in the aftermath of the accident.

“There is no question the barge floundered,” said Chamberlain. “Who is responsible for the proper care? We say, Ted Leroy.”

On the morning of Aug. 20, 2007, employees of Ted Leroy Trucking loaded the 120-foot-long barge with heavy equipment at Beaver Cove, just south of Port McNeill, to be towed to another logging operation in Bute Inlet, located on the mainland coast east of Campbell River.

The tow began at 8:45 a.m. and travelled approximately 20 kilometres south when the rusty barge began to list after taking on seawater. It was 11:35 a.m. when the barge listed heavily to the starboard (right) side and dumped almost all the heavy equipment – including a fuel truck carrying 10,000 litres of diesel along with a large oil container – into the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve.

The area contains rubbing beaches used by killer whales and approximately 60 orcas were sighted that day in, or near, the reserve.

“Marie Fournier was watching the whales in Robson Bight as this event was taking place,” said Kier. “Whales were actually swimming through the oil.”

Later that afternoon, a Transport Canada plane flew over the accident site and photographed the spill which now covered almost 15 kilometres north to Hanson Island.

“I observed two plumes of oil originating from the (accident) area. One was larger than the other and they were quite close together,” testified Tim Cole, the pilot who photographed the spill.

The spill dissipated after a day or two, but it wasn’t until May of this year when the fuel truck was eventually recovered and removed from Robson Bight.

The 10-day trial began Monday in Campbell River provincial court and will continue into next week.

— Campbell River Mirror