Criminal probe opened in Bay oil spill

Source: Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - The entire crew of the cargo ship that sideswiped a bridge, causing San Francisco Bay's worst oil spill in nearly two decades, has been detained as part of a criminal investigation, a Coast Guard official said Sunday.

Capt. William Uberti said he notified the U.S. attorney's office on Saturday about issues involving management and communication among members of the bridge crew: the helmsman, the watch officer, the ship's master and the pilot.

The entire crew of the Cosco Busan, which disgorged 58,000 gallons of oil into the Bay on Wednesday, is being detained on the ship for questioning, said Uberti, head of the Coast Guard for Northern California.

Uberti declined to specify what problems he reported. Federal prosecutors did not return a call seeking comment on Sunday.

Darrell Wilson, a representative for Regal Stone Ltd, the Hong Kong-based company who owns the ship, would not talk about the federal probe. "I really don't have anything I can comment on," he said.

A preliminary Coast Guard investigation found that human error, not mechanical failure, caused the ship to crash into a support on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071112/ap_on_re_us/bay_spill

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Don't mess with California.

We take very seriously the condition of the beautiful San Francisco Bay ...

And all our waterways...

:grr:

The San Francisco Bay has been an ongoing ecological disaster for more than 25 years, resulting from introduced and invasive species, disruption of natural hydrologic regimes, and runoff from agricultural and urban sources, along with the usual point source polluters. This is just the latest in a long series of assaults on the ecological integrity of the bay-- and unfortunately, it comes at a time when the bay is especially fragile. I'm really worried about this spill. One of my grad students is going down to train volunteers rescuing birds-- maybe she'll have some info about bird mortality in the coming days. But I fear that the greatest damage will be to the already hosed shallow water benthic invertebrate community.

Speak English! lol

...and so on. One of the richest marine communities on the planet. Google "invasive species san francisco bay" for some initial info on how bad the situation is in the bay and the estuary-- BEFORE a major oil spill. Fifty-eight thousand gallons of spilled fuel is bad, but probably not TOO bad. But some parts of the bay will likely be impacted for many years, and the whole bay is teetering on the edge of ecological collapse already.

on edit-- the effect on birds is only the beginning, and for most people, the most visible outcome. But it is only the beginning.

There's no Dustbuster that can take that cr@P out of the sand or the water. And there goes the whole chain backwards and forwards. There are tiny puffins that nest on the beach here. They look like bubbles. They're not going to make it. And we can see them. :(

will die no matter what. It's enough to break your heart.

It was heart-breaking.

Those birds were all fouled-up.

Floundering around down on the beach.

And they would flop back into the scum whenever we approached (and we all pretty know our way around the animal thing).

Fucking Coast Guard idiots.

Stupid fucking Pilot.

Asleep at the switch Harbor Master.

You don't simply "run into" the fucking Bay Bridge.

It's gone all the way to Point Isabel. This is going to set the bay back decades.

And damned right it is going to be a long time.

With an average depth of 11 (eleven) feet and a totally fouled-up floor, this will take a while.

It is all over our part of the Bay.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3062945&mesg_id=3062982



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3062945&mesg_id=3062982

They're big and they move fast and thinking back, I'm surprised this hasn't happened more often. :(

WTF were those folks thinking?

First, they passed it of as "inconsequential".

And then it was all over us.

There were threads here about what a pass-off it was.

The Coast Guard was anything but, on this one.

:shrug:

The probe should include the Coast Guard's public dismissal of the severity of the spill.

And while I'm at it, we need a better word than "spill". That language is fixed and I don't like it either.

in front of them and steer out of the way.

'stand down', look askance while oil seeped across the Bay. With the once precious Bay area deemed unusable to the public, what use will it be but ummmm, maybeeee off shore oil drilling?

Has big oil ever eyed the SF Bay area for drilling? Have they been prevented only by the environmentalists and laws unwilling to bend in favor of off shore drilling.

After Bush/Cheney and the politics of 'anything for oil', I think conspiracy, first.

Just saying, maybe...