Posted on 12/01/2004 3:46:13 PM PST by Kitten Festival
The oil tanker spill in the Delaware River, caused by a Venezuelan-chartered single hull (cheap and old) tanker is worse than previously thought. First reported (in gallons - to make it seem bigger) at just over 700 barrels of oil, it is now suspected that as much as 11,000 barrels or more could be spilled.
This may loom as a huge PR problem for the Castroite Chavez regime. The MSM will avoid referring to Venezuela's role as long as possible, but that's why the internet still has a role, even after Rather's resignation.
Chavez: slayer of duckies and birdies.
No, because as you say, the MSM will never report it. Communist countries have always been the major polluters - and this has been a deep dark secret with the leftist media.
Chavez ping.
Thanks for the ping and the post.
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Dec. 02, 2004 Wind hinders oil cleanup
By Wendy Ruderman, Kaitlin Gurney and Tom Avril
Inquirer Staff Writers
The Coast Guard imposed new restrictions on big ships on the Delaware River yesterday as the hunt for what caused one of the biggest oil spills in the river's history intensified.
As part of the underwater search, the Army Corps of Engineers was looking for a 22,000-pound, 131/2-foot-diameter propeller that fell off one of its dredge ships in April in the general area of where a tugboat crew saw the tanker Athos I leaking heavy crude Friday night.
Officials have said more than 473,000 gallons of oil was missing from the damaged tanker, but they did not know how much of it had escaped into the river and how much was trapped in the ship's ballast.
Meanwhile, heavy rain and strong wind hindered the cleanup as the slick moved 10 more miles south. By yesterday morning, oil coated the water or patches of shoreline for 55 miles south of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge.
Nearly a dozen cleanup boats were swamped by wind-whipped water, officials said. A westerly wind pushed most of the oil onto the New Jersey side of the river.
Last night, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and federal authorities advised waterfowl hunters and anglers not to hunt or boat in the Delaware River or its tributaries south of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge until further notice.
Coast Guard Capt. Jonathan D. Sarubbi announced the shipping restrictions, saying, "I am concerned that we haven't found anything.
"We've put these additional restrictions in place with regard to vessel drafts just to error on the caution side, just to make sure nothing else happens."
Under the restrictions - the latest to affect shipping on the river since the environmental disaster unfolded - vessels that draw more than 34 feet of water cannot sail on the Delaware at low tide.
The tanker Athos I draws 36.6 feet of water, and the leak was noticed 90 minutes after low tide.
The missing propeller fell off the Army Corps dredge boat McFarland in April between Fort Mifflin and the Commodore Barry Bridge, along the same path taken by the tanker.
The loss prompted a brief closure of the river, and a three-week underwater sonar search failed to find the propeller.
"We do not have an exact point where the propeller was lost," Army Corps spokesman Merv Brokke said yesterday. "We did not see it fall off."
"More than 2,400 vessels have safely transited the river since the propeller was lost, indicating that the propeller did not pose a hazard to navigation," said Lt. Buddy Dye, a Coast Guard spokesman.
But should the propeller be tied to the gash in the Athos I, maritime lawyer Edward R. Petkevis predicted a drawn-out legal battle between the tanker's insurance company and the federal government.
Federal officials decided yesterday to search an additional five miles of river for obstructions.
So far, two sonar-equipped vessels, the Shuman and the Dauntless, have crisscrossed three miles in the vicinity of the Athos I. The search will now extend south to the Commodore Barry Bridge, said Joseph Scolari, head of surveys for the Army Corps office in Philadelphia.
Two independent shipping experts said extending the search was a good idea, noting that the oil might not have leaked out immediately after a hole was torn in the hull.
"It's really sort of thick and gooey," said Dagmar Etkin, an oil-spill consultant based in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. "It would take some time to flow out."
In addition, oil is lighter than water, and water pressure would hold the oil in for some time, said Jim Kuly, a former port engineer who was in charge of maintaining several tank barges in the Delaware.
Five days after the spill, officials had not provided the names of the ship's master or the pilots who were on the ship during its trip upriver or during the docking maneuver.
They also have not identified the two tugs that were moving the ship, but The Inquirer has determined that they were operated by Moran Towing. Officials there would not comment yesterday.
Michael J. Linton, president of the pilots' union, said the river pilot on the ship had more than 30 years of experience. A docking pilot also boarded the vessel to guide it into its dock.
Coast Guard officials said the pilots and any crew involved with navigation had tested negative for drugs or alcohol. The ship master and his 27-member crew are detained on the Athos I, which is anchored off Paulsboro and West Deptford while its cargo of 14 million gallons of Venezuelan crude is unloaded onto barges.
The disclosure Tuesday that the amount of missing oil was far greater than originally thought brought an angry reaction from residents and public officials, including New Jersey's acting governor, Richard J. Codey, and Paulsboro Mayor John Burzichelli.
"Going from 30,000 to 473,000 raises the question of at what point this ship got opened up," Burzichelli said. "People in Paulsboro are getting uneasy because they're wondering who's telling the truth here. If they're lying about how much product is out there, what else are they lying about? We just want someone to give us a straight answer so we can find out an idea of what the impact is."
The ship's engineer based the 30,000-gallon figure on a reading taken when the Athos I was listing 8 degrees due to a loss of or a shifting of weight. Coast Guard officials got a more accurate measure of the missing oil after the ship was righted.
Sarubbi and other Coast Guard officials said they did not expect the spill to measure as much as 473,500 gallons. The amount, they said, was a "worst-case scenario."
The officials said the higher amount would not have changed their initial cleanup response. They said they had acted based on visual inspections of the oil slick during helicopter flights, not on the 30,000-gallon estimate.
"The numbers, when they are first announced, are never accurate," Dye said.
The number of cleanup workers reached 883 yesterday, up 150 from Tuesday. Workers have recovered 7,140 gallons of oil or oil-water mix and laid 45,000 feet of boom to block the oil's spread. Sixty-nine oil-sopped birds have been rescued since Saturday, and 31 of them have died, the Coast Guard said.
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