Source: SFGate
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This morning's oil spill in the bay, nearly two years to the date from the infamous Cosco Busan incident, is a stark reminder of the environmental hazards posed by shipping.
The Panamanian oil tanker vessel spilled bunker oil, which powers most ships. It is the gunky stuff literally from the bottom of the barrel of oil. It contains high concentrations of sulfur and is 1,000 times dirtier than the diesel fuel that trucks use. Some green groups have called on the shipping industry to use cleaner fuel. Biofuels would be great, but even more refined fossil fuels would be a start.
Hilda Solis, now the Secretary of Labor, proposed legislation requiring cleaner fuels in U.S. waters when she was in the House of Representatives, and California's own Barbara Boxer backed the Senate version. Both tanked.
California has a state law requiring the use of progressively cleaner fuels beginning in 2012. The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association sued to block the legislation, but lost. Because the state has such active ports, NRDC estimates that ocean vessels expose 80 percent of Californians to "significant cancer risk" and that the legislation will save 3,500 lives per year.
But fuel is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of shippings' environmental hazards. Ships routinely dump both fuel and trash into the ocean. And they are a primary vector for invasive species, taking in water in one port and dumping it in other ports, which releases algae and small marine species. The zebra muscle has swept across much of the northeastern United States, including the Great Lakes, after being released by a freighter in 1988. So far, the muscle has cost the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service $5 billion.
An international convention demanding that the balast water be treated prior to release has not been ratified.
Because shipping is by its nature international, it has proved resistant to even common sense regulations like these. Indeed, companies often look for the bottom of the barrel in environmental and other regulations, shopping around for a flag to fly over their ships.
Meanwhile, national and state authorities are handed the bill for accidents like this morning's. Nonprofits also do much of the clean-up work. Marine Spill Response Corp. is already on the scene today.
I will update if and when I hear of volunteer clean-up efforts. In the meantime, if you see oiled wildlife, call (877) 823-6926.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=50666&tsp=1#ixzz0VSUbQvQn
.
This morning's oil spill in the bay, nearly two years to the date from the infamous Cosco Busan incident, is a stark reminder of the environmental hazards posed by shipping.
The Panamanian oil tanker vessel spilled bunker oil, which powers most ships. It is the gunky stuff literally from the bottom of the barrel of oil. It contains high concentrations of sulfur and is 1,000 times dirtier than the diesel fuel that trucks use. Some green groups have called on the shipping industry to use cleaner fuel. Biofuels would be great, but even more refined fossil fuels would be a start.
Hilda Solis, now the Secretary of Labor, proposed legislation requiring cleaner fuels in U.S. waters when she was in the House of Representatives, and California's own Barbara Boxer backed the Senate version. Both tanked.
California has a state law requiring the use of progressively cleaner fuels beginning in 2012. The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association sued to block the legislation, but lost. Because the state has such active ports, NRDC estimates that ocean vessels expose 80 percent of Californians to "significant cancer risk" and that the legislation will save 3,500 lives per year.
But fuel is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of shippings' environmental hazards. Ships routinely dump both fuel and trash into the ocean. And they are a primary vector for invasive species, taking in water in one port and dumping it in other ports, which releases algae and small marine species. The zebra muscle has swept across much of the northeastern United States, including the Great Lakes, after being released by a freighter in 1988. So far, the muscle has cost the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service $5 billion.
An international convention demanding that the balast water be treated prior to release has not been ratified.
Because shipping is by its nature international, it has proved resistant to even common sense regulations like these. Indeed, companies often look for the bottom of the barrel in environmental and other regulations, shopping around for a flag to fly over their ships.
Meanwhile, national and state authorities are handed the bill for accidents like this morning's. Nonprofits also do much of the clean-up work. Marine Spill Response Corp. is already on the scene today.
I will update if and when I hear of volunteer clean-up efforts. In the meantime, if you see oiled wildlife, call (877) 823-6926.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=50666&tsp=1#ixzz0VSUbQvQn
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