Northern California Under Emergency

[FishBandit]

California oil spill 'emergency'


Mr Schwarzenegger said he wanted to waste no time in the clean-up
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency to help fight an oil spill that is threatening the coast of northern California.

He has ordered all available resources to be deployed to tackle the 58,000 gallon (228,000 litre) spill, which is putting wildlife and beaches at risk.

The spill occurred on Wednesday, when a tanker struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and is said to be spreading.

Some critics have reportedly questioned the speed of the initial response.

The governor's office said special "skimmers" and booms were being used to try to recover some of the oil and limit the slick's spread.

Mr Schwarzenegger said he had signed the emergency order so that the clean-up operation could progress "without wasting a minute of time".

A worker cleans up oil at Muir Beach, California
Several beaches have had to be closed because of oil pollution

The spill is reportedly the largest to affect the San Francisco Bay area since 10,000 gallons of fuel leaked from a ship undergoing repairs in 1996.

The California department of fish and game has reported finding two dozen sea birds covered in oil and has said hundreds more may be at risk.

The agency's assistant chief Steve Edinger told the AFP news agency the spill was a "very significant event".

No more fuel is now leaking from the Cosco-Busan container ship that caused the spill.

The slick is relatively small compared to major oil spills such as that caused when the Exxon Valdez tanker hit a reef, releasing 11 million gallons off the Alaskan coastline in 1989.

http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wo...088231.stm

First the water crisis in the bay. Then the fires. Now this. When will California be saved? :cry:

theBandit

[Fisher-of-Men]

First the water crisis in the bay. Then the fires. Now this. When will California be saved? :cry:

theBandit

This is a process that will not stop until the end of days my friend. It's like birth pains. As the end draws near; so do the contractions.

Fisher-of-Men

[sansou]

First the water crisis in the bay. Then the fires. Now this. When will California be saved? :cry:

theBandit

This is a process that will not stop until the end of days my friend. It's like birth pains. As the end draws near; so do the contractions.

Fisher-of-Men

:roll:


Fishbandit: I've been following this a bit as well on the news. My sister is a doc that works at one of the larger hospitals there in the city, and got "volunteered" by her boss as part of her regular duties to join a team of docs that have been funded by the feds to monitor and assess any adverse human effects this may present. She tells me the magnitude of the spill was originally misreported/miscalculated and in fact, the beaches and other water areas will remain affected by this for many many years. The type of oild dumped is called "bunker fuel" which contains PAHs (a known carcinogen). PAHs are used to measure the cancer producing potency of the fuel. They rate the carcinogenic effect by assuming a average human eating one 8-ounce meal (or two 4-ounce meals) per week for 30 years of the tainted stuff. 44ppb (parts per billion) is the max U.S. safety standard, and some areas where the oil dumped are running in the 50ppb or higher.

Let's hope something good comes out of all of this...