09/28/2026
On September 27, 1996, the Julie N tanker collided with Portland's Million-Dollar Bridge, spilling more than 179,000 gallons of oil into Casco Bay and the Fore River. Cheryl Seavy, our Associate Director at the time, was on the Million Dollar Bridge the moment it was hit.
Our staff was on the scene within 20 minutes of the incident. Casco Baykeeper Joe Payne and Volunteer Coordinator Peter Milholland quickly got into our pumpout boat to check it out. At the scene of the spill, Peter was transferred to a spill response boat and assisted in placing the first boom across the harbor.
The cleanup was coordinated by Amity Product Carriers, the owner of the vessel and “the responsible party.” Much of the cleanup was performed by Seacoast Ocean Services, Marine Spill Response Corporation, as well as other licensed response companies.
Joe joined the joint incident command, which included the Coast Guard, NOAA, EPA, and state officials from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Knowing the Bay intimately and being trained in oil spill preparedness, Joe made numerous recommendations during the cleanup that helped contribute to its success.
Out on the water, Joe saw a gap in the booms that helped prevent even more untold amounts of oil from getting out into the Fore River. Cleanup crews were working around the clock, and by the end of the second day, efforts were slowing. Joe strongly urged that more needed to be done. The Coast Guard, DEP, and the responsible party brought in many more people and boats for the cleanup. Edward Sullivan, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner at the time, said, "The Casco Baykeeper doggedly pushed the responders to shore up weak spots in the oil recovery effort."
13.8 miles of coastline were covered in oil, with the upper Fore River marsh heavily affected. The impact to birds was devastating. Friends of Casco Bay contacted 100 trained oiled-bird rehabilitation volunteers to assist Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife with oiled bird recovery. We also coordinated volunteers to be on the lookout for oiled wildlife. 1,500 oiled birds were spotted (it was migration season), but only 27 were captured, and most of those died.
In the end, 78% of the oil was cleaned up, an amount considered exceptionally successful. (15-20% is considered a typical oil recovery success.)
After the spill, Joe remarked in an interview, “Casco Bay is a living, breathing organism full of clams, periwinkles, seaweed and lobsters. The Bay brings so much to us, and here it was suffocating. It made me physically sick to my stomach to see the insult.”
We look back at this event with a mixture of pride at our efforts, sadness at the devastation it caused, and caution for how such tragic environmental disasters can be prevented in the future.
