Pollution

Citation

(2003), "Pollution", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 12 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2003.07312eac.002

Pollution

Pollution

12 September 2002 – Maribyrnong River, Melbourne, Australia

Authorities are investigating the source of a 40,000 litre spill of the non-toxic white oil into the Maribyrnong River in Melbourne’s west. Marine Safety Victoria (MSV) is currently assessing the extent of the spill. MSV director John Lord said approximately 40,000 litres of the non-toxic substance, which is used as a food additive and for medicinal purposes, had been found downstream from the Bunbury Rail Bridge. “This substance has leaked out of a tank at the northern end of Bentley Chemplax’s facility on Coode Island,” he said. “The overall response is being co-ordinated by Marine Safety Victoria, with clean up and containment being undertaken by the Victorian Channels Authority and Bentley Chemplax”.

10 September 2002 – Newfoundland, Canada

The Filipino captain of bulk Tecam Sea (17,056gt, built 1984) is facing charges that his ship dumped a large amount of oil off the coast of Newfoundland after authorities spotted a spill using unique space technology. Celso F. Ruedas was charged today under the Migratory Birds Act. He was released on bail and is expected to appear in court again tomorrow. Environment Canada officials said other charges are pending against the vessel owners and possibly other members of the crew. Officials with the federal agency boarded the Bahamian-registered vessel today to determine if it intentionally spilled just less than 1,000 litres a few hundred kilometres from a sensitive ecological reserve on the province’s south coast. The vessel was ordered to come into port in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, after a 116-kilometre-long, 200-metre wide slick was spotted trailing behind it in an innovative detection system. The oil was first seen by a satellite passing over the area as part of a new pilot project involving the Canadian Space Agency and several federal government departments that will track vessels they suspect of illegally spilling harmful oil into the ocean.

12 September 2002 – Two officers of bulk Tecam Sea have been charged with causing an oil spill near an ecological reserve on Newfoundland’s southern coast. Charges filed yesterday against Captain Celso F. Ruedas and Reynaldo Y. Galindo, the chief engineer, accusing them of dumping oil and failing to report a spill in violation of Canada’s Migratory Birds Act, the Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. They allegedly spilled almost 1,000 litres of oil off the Newfoundland coast a few hundred kilometres from the Cape St Mary’s Ecological Reserve in Placentia Bay. Both suspects have been released on $50,000 Canadian bail. Their lawyers say they had nothing to do with the spill. The vessel’s owners, Sea Quality of Panama, and its operators, Elmira Shipping and Trading of Greece, also have been charged with illegally dumping oil. The vessel was ordered to dock Monday (9 September) in Newfoundland’s Conception Bay after a slick more than 100 kilometres long and 200 metres wide was spotted behind it.

13 September 2002 – Winds from hurricane “Gustav” will help to disperse oil from a large slick discovered off the coast of Newfoundland over the weekend from bulk Tecam Sea, an Environment Canada official says. The remnants of the hurricane reached the province early today, bringing gusts of more than 90 kilometres an hour and torrential rain to some parts of the island. All the oil from the 116-kilometre-wide, 200-metre-long spill will eventually disperse in the water, but the hurricane winds most likely will speed up the process, Tony Lock of the marine issues biology unit for the Atlantic region said. He said it is too early to tell if 40 oil-covered young seabirds washed up on the shores of Newfoundland were affected by the most recently discovered oil slick. The birds will be sent to a Moncton lab and the oil on them will be compared with the oil from the slick, which was discovered by satellite technology on Sunday (8 September). Mr Lock suspects the birds that washed up on shore yesterday were actually affected by another spill.

19 September 2002 – Galway Bay, Republic Of Ireland

Charges for polluting Galway Bay are set to be brought following yesterday (Wednesday) morning’s 5,000 litre oil slick which covered more than four miles of the bay, potentially threatening wildlife and damaging local fishing boats. The leak from an overfilled terminal in the city docks saw a quick response from the harbour authorities and led to a major clean-up operation to protect the bay and its wildlife. Some time after 08.00 yesterday, a form of gas oil from an overfilled storage facility at the Leeside Terminal at the docks leaked out into the bay. The tank is located at Lough Atalia Bay at the side of the harbour. As soon as the leak was detected, the harbour master Captain Brian Sheridan activated the oil spillage emergency plan. An oil boom was deployed to contain the slick and prevent it from spreading out any further into the bay. Absorbent pads to soak up the oil were put in place and there was a skip to collect the recovered oil. An aerial examination of the bay was carried out. It showed the sheen on the water, the direction of the flow, and that it extended four miles west of Mutton Island to the centre of the bay. Captain Sheridan informed the Galway City Council, the Galway County Council, the Irish Coast Guard, and the Galway Swan Sanctuary of what had happened. He also informed Leeside Oil, which is carrying out its own investigations. It has initiated its own oil contingency plan and has its team of experts on site at the terminal. While this is a serious incident, the clean-up operation is being helped by the environment itself. According to Captain Sheridan: “98 per cent of the oil will evaporate. The first 60 per cent will be gone in the first 24 hours and the next 24 hours will see it go completely.” He said the good weather is helping in the evaporation process. However he says the clean-up will take “as long as it takes” to make sure the oil is cleared up. Initial investigations have shown that a valve allowed water to enter the tank and subsequently overflow. Captain Sheridan said the main concern is to make sure the bay’s swan population, and the famous swan colony at the Claddagh, is protected from the effects of the spill. He informed Galway Swan Sanctuary of what had happened and it reported all the swans are fine for the time being and there is no trace of oil at the Claddagh area. It is keeping a close eye on the situation and there is no report of any damage to swans and wildlife. A large number of local inshore fishing boats were moored in the area where the spill took place. Hulls of boats were smeared with the oil and paintwork and mooring ropes were affected. Sheridan also said swimmers should be vigilant and inform the harbour board if they see any effects of the slick when swimming. The major question following the slick is if any prosecutions will follow. Captain Sheridan says the Local Authority Water Pollution Act gives the local authority power to prosecute a polluter. “It will be down to the Galway City Council”, he said, “to pursue and fine the polluter”.

19 September 2002 – Mexico City, Mexico

Hundreds of thousands of cars were ordered off Mexico City streets today as the city declared its first pollution alert in almost three years after ozone levels reached about 2.5 times acceptable limits. The one-day driving ban may be extended if the smog does not dissipate. In the past, almost half of the city’s estimated three million vehicles were ordered off the streets during such alerts. But many residents have bought newer, cleaner models that are allowed even during emergencies. Today’s ban affected about 350,000 of the city’s older-model vehicles. The last such emergency was declared in October 1999. Despite the urging of 44 environmentalists, the city has not changed the level at which smog alerts are declared: 240 points on a scale in which 100 is considered acceptable. Environmentalists say the threshold should be lowered.

1 October 2002 – San Francisco Area, California, USA

US Coast Guard officials announced today that months of work offshore by divers and engineers to recover some 85,000 gallons of oil from sunken vessel Jacob Luckenbach is complete. Standing on a San Francisco pier beside the hired marine salvage barge that served as a floating island and support for teams of divers entering the Jacob Luckenbach, Lt. Michael Lebsack estimated that 500 people worked to trace the oil that for a decade had been mysteriously killing birds along the coast. It turned out to be from a vessel that sank west of the city nearly a half century ago. Work that began in late May was finished on 26 September, he explained, months after the initial plan had projected. But difficult and dangerous conditions in the frigid water 175 feet below the surface, along with a bout of rough seas early on, kept stretching the schedule further and further toward fall. The thick oil had to be warmed for underwater pumping teams to do their work. Ed Ueber, who heads the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, thanked all the state and federal agencies involved in the unprecedented effort, but particularly the six divers. Ueber estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 seabirds died over the years in a region that ranks among the nation’s most precious for bird and mammal diversity. Coastguard officials estimated about 30,000 gallons are still inside the wreck, but are sealed off and “unlikely” to leak out again.

4 October 2002 – Cooper River, South Carolina, USA

Clean-up crews working on the Cooper River Oil Spill are concentrating their efforts today on the remaining heavily-concentrated areas of recoverable oil between Piers Delta and Pier Papa on the Old Navy Base in Charleston. Contractors will also be replacing saturated absorbent boom with new absorbent boom to facilitate collection efforts. To date, more than 700 gallons of oil has been recovered using skimmers, absorbent pads and boom. The spill still remains a mystery but more than 100 people from ten different federal, state and local agencies are aggressively working to clean up the oil spill. Presently, over $225,000 has been spent on the recovery effort and the ceiling for the clean-up was raised from $500,000 to $750,000 today. Tri-State Environmental bird rescue representatives are also on site to assess wildlife impact. Shoreline containment and assessment teams located approximately 15 oiled pelicans yesterday around Crab Bank. Tri-State personnel are headed to Crab Bank today in an attempt to recover any of the distressed pelicans. A Coastguard helicopter crew with Coastguard Marine Safety Office Charleston and state DHEC personnel departed Coastguard Air Facility Charleston about 08.00 today to conduct an over-flight of the Cooper River spill areas and offshore areas to determine how much oil is still on the water. Coastguard oil spill investigators collected nine more samples on Wednesday from ships and shore facilities along the Cooper River. The samples were sent to the Coastguard’s Marine Safety Laboratory in Groton, Conn. So far a total of 38 oil samples, including 11 source samples, have been taken from possible sources to be compared with oil recovered from the Cooper River. The beaches are still open, but residents and visitors are encouraged to stay away from any oil deposits along the beach. The oil is not hazardous but if you do get it on your skin the Coastguard and the South Carolina DHEC recommend cleaning it with a mild detergent. State shellfish ground 200 at the mouth of the Folly River remains closed. South Carolina DHEC closed the oyster bed to harvesting on Wednesday. The Coastguard has contracted with Charleston Marine Services and Moran Environmental Recovery to conduct clean-up efforts. “Our investigation into a responsible party is moving forward,” said Commander Gary Merrick, Federal On Scene Coordinator for clean-up operation and the Captain of the Port for Charleston. “As we receive results from the samples we sent to the Coastguard’s Marine Safety Laboratory we will begin to eliminate potential sources and move closer to identifying the probable source”, continued Merrick.

5 November 2002 – Gaula River, Norway

A 35-year-old farmer in one of Norway’s most scenic areas has admitted that he pumped 220,000 litres of cow manure mixed with water into the Gaula River. Authorities fear the illegal dumping may have killed-off prized salmon stocks. Police in Gaular, in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, said the farmer told investigators that the cellar where he stored cow manure was too full. “He said there wouldn’t have been enough room in it to store all the manure his cows will produce during the winter,” Erik Folland of the Gaular police station told wire service NTH. The farmer, who wasn’t named in accordance with Norwegian press policy, said he simply hadn’t used up enough of the manure as fertilizer during the autumn. He therefore decided to get rid of it by dumping it into the river. He told police that he first pumped water from the river into his manure cellar, to make it fluid. He then switched the pump so the liquid manure was pumped back into the river. The Gaula River is one of the top salmon fishing rivers in Northern Europe. Environmental officials worry that large amounts of salmon stock may have been killed by the liquid manure. “They will now try to determine the scale of the damage”, Folland said. Then they have to evaluate whether they’ll file charges against the farmer.

23 December 2002 – Algeciras, Spain

Spain’s maritime authorities imposed a euro 600,000 fine on c.c. Albert Maersk which spilled 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil into a bay during a refuelling operation, officials said on Saturday (21 December). The measure was imposed on Friday. Albert Maersk was refuelling in the port of Algeciras when the spill occurred. The sum levied would go to pay for the clean-up operation, officials said. The Danish vessel was also ordered to remain at quayside until further notice.

21 December 2002 – Commencement Bay, Washington, USA

Owners and operators of chemical/oil carrier Kaede (13539 gt, built 1982) that spewed oily waste into Commencement Bay on 22 October pleaded guilty yesterday to felony charges related to the spill and might face $1 million in fines. Pleading guilty in federal court to various charges related to the spill were Unix Line PTE Ltd, a Singapore corporation; Springs Navigation SA, a Panama corporation; and Hyeong-Bin Jeong, the chief engineer on Kaede. If a judge approves, the corporations will pay a collective fine of $750,000 to develop and implement an environmental compliance plan and will serve four years on probation. The Department of Justice is recommending that $300,000 of the fine be directed to projects intended to preserve and enhance the marine environment along Washington’s coast. The Commencement Bay spill itself drew only misdemeanour charges. But when state and federal officers investigated the spill, they discovered a hose on the tanker had been used to bypass required pollution-control equipment and discharge oily waste directly into the ocean. According to investigators, the spill was caused by an accidental release of oily waste that had collected in a piping system of the tanker as a result of the tanker’s earlier ocean discharges. Jeong pleaded guilty to falsifying the vessel’s logbook, a felony. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The two corporations pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour violation of the Federal Clean Water Act for the spill. Unix Line also pleaded guilty to a felony violation for making false statements to the US Coastguard. All three defendants are to be sentenced 28 March in US District Court in Tacoma.