Major fuel oil spill in San Francisco Bay!

[Ninong]

Coast Guard commandant admits response was not adequate and announces that he has replaced the local Coast Guard commander who led the response...

Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard commandant who has defended his agency in recent days, acknowledged at Wednesday's Senate subcommittee briefing that the response was not adequate. He announced that he is replacing the commander who led the response, and within 90 days will make public the results of an investigation into what went wrong.

"It won't be the Coast Guard investigating the Coast Guard," Allen added, saying that other federal, state and Bay Area agencies will all be involved.

Here.

P.S. -- As a refresher: It was more than 8 hours after the spill before the Coast Guard realized it was 58,000 gallons and not 140 gallons, and it was more than 12 hours after the spill before they told anyone else about the true extent of the disaster.

The Coast Guard is charged with ensuring that the crew is tested for alcohol and drugs immediately after such an accident. The ship's pilot was tested within about two hours but other relevant crew members were not tested for 53 hours. The Coast Guard failed to ensure the timely testing of many of the crew members. Alcohol and drugs do not appear to have been involved but it's embarrassing that the Coast Guard failed in their responsibility to ensure that this testing was performed immediately.

The initial cleanup efforts by the Coast Guard were totally inadequate for the magnitude of the disaster. That's probably because they insisted all day long that the spill was only 140 gallons, as reported to them by the ship's crew and confirmed by the ship's owners. It's quite possible that the ship's fuel oil measuring gauges were damaged in the collision. Nonetheless, other competent expert eye witnesses on the scene even before the Coast Guard showed up informed the Coast Guard that the spill was certainly much, much larger than 140 gallons. The local Coast Guard commander chose to accept the ship captain's estimate of 140 gallons. The Coast Guard's own log shows that they did not learn it was actually 58,000 gallons until 4:48 p.m. and then they waited another four hours before telling anyone.

Maritime insurance agents on the scene estimate total insurance claims will exceed $100 million.

[Ninong]

Wildlife biologists now estimate more than 20,000 birds died as a result of the oil spill: here.

[TimH07]

so glad a trillion organisms, from micro to macro, died so a soccer mom can drive her chevy suburban 10 miles alone to get a frapacino every morning...... we need cleaner energy FFS

[Ninong]

Update: June 30, 2009 article in SF Chronicle

Court OKs hefty fine possibility in Busan spill

A federal appeals court allowed prosecutors Monday to seek as much as $40 million in fines against the commercial operator of the container ship that struck the Bay Bridge in November 2007 and spilled 53,000 gallons of oil.

Fleet Management Ltd. offered last month to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of negligently polluting the San Francisco Bay and killing seabirds. But the company balked when prosecutors obtained a new grand jury indictment that accused it of causing $20 million in damage, with a potential fine of as much as twice that amount.

Fleet Management argued that the fine should be no more than $215,000, the maximum allowed in the indictment it faced when it first admitted guilt.

But U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, noting that the company hadn't admitted anything in court, ruled last week that prosecutors were entitled to file the amended charges with higher fines. On Monday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco refused to consider the company's pretrial appeal or put the case on hold.

Federal prosecutors have not yet said what fine they will seek.

Fleet Management's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. The company could decide to plead guilty, go to trial on the charges or appeal further. Regardless, it faces a trial Sept. 14 on separate felony charges of obstructing a federal investigation by fabricating navigation records.

Fleet Management operated the Cosco Busan, a 901-foot container ship that hit the second tower of the bridge west of Yerba Buena Island in a thick morning fog Nov. 7, 2007.

Oil pouring from a gash on the ship's port side reached the bay shoreline and ocean beaches in Marin and San Mateo counties and killed more than 2,000 birds. Government agencies have estimated the cost of the damage and cleanup at $70 million.

The ship's pilot, John Cota, has pleaded guilty to the same two misdemeanor charges, negligently polluting the waters and killing birds. His plea agreement calls for a prison sentence of two to 10 months and a fine of between $3,000 and $30,000.