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Tugboat Sinks, Spills Diesel in Columbia River Above Priest Rapids Dam by K.C. Mehaffey Clearing Up, July 7, 2026

The boat had the capacity to hold 400 gallons of diesel fuel
and upon recovery, the tanks were found to be filled with water.

Officials are still investigating what caused a tugboat to sink in the Columbia River during the night on June 28, resulting in a diesel spill of an unknown amount.

The tugboat was moored to a barge and contracted to work on a spillway stability improvement project at Priest Rapids Dam, Grant County Public Utility District spokesperson Annette Lovitt told Clearing Up in an email.

Grant PUD contractors and crews discovered the spill on June 29, notified the Washington State Department of Ecology and began to clean up the spill by using absorbent booms to soak up the fuel.

Contractors recovered the tug from the river on July 2 and placed it on containment pads on the shore, according to a Grant PUD news release.

The boat had the capacity to hold 400 gallons of diesel fuel, and a company contracted to clean up the spill found the tanks were filled with water, according to Emily Tasaka, communications manager at Ecology's central region office.

She told Clearing Up that Kuney Construction and GrayMar Environmental--a cleanup contractor--had deployed hard and soft booms to contain a sheen before Ecology arrived to monitor the cleanup.

No fuel was recovered from the tanks, she said, but GrayMar has recovered residual oil from machinery spaces in the boat's engine room.

Ecology is maintaining on-site monitoring during the cleanup and has deployed a drone to look for any sheen releases, boom integrity issues or downstream impacts, Tasaka said.

The sunken boat caused no damage to the dam, and no one was injured.

Lovitt said although the cause of the incident is under investigation, the PUD does suspect wind was a factor.