Word: spill
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...well, I'll get my day(s) in court soon enough and the cause ((of the oil spill)) will seem pretty mundane and simple after...
...major cleanup campaign was under way once again last week in three different spots in the U.S.: the Delaware River, Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay and the Houston Ship Channel. Crews were deploying rakes, hand-held skimmers, oversize absorbent pads and "supersucker" vacuums to scoop up the oil spilled in the accidents. While all the slicks were much smaller than the 10.5 million-gal. spill of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska last March, the timing of the latest mishaps, which all ! occurred within a twelve-hour period on June 23 and 24, had a powerful effect. "The political impact...
...spills stirred public outcry and galvanized congressional sentiment to impose tougher regulations on the oil-shipping industry. In House testimony last week, the Coast Guard reported that it had recorded 6,700 oil spills during 1988, ten of which involved at least 100,000 gals. While total spills were down from 10,000 in 1984, environmentalists contend that the level remains unacceptably high, especially in light of the poor results of most mop-up efforts. Cleanup crews recover on average no more than 10% of major oil spills, a performance that has failed to improve during the past 20 years...
...generation of spill-cleanup technology would have the most dramatic impact on the problem. "Our current technology is in the Stone Age," says the National Wildlife Federation's Olson. The booms and skimmers that are most frequently used suffer some basic flaws: they do not work in rough seas, and heavy crude tends to seep under a boom and clog a skimmer. Finally, the devices are all but useless when confronted with a devastatingly large spill like the Valdez disaster. Once the oil had spread over the vast Prince William Sound, a boat towing a skimmer needed fully 14 hours...
...Uruguayan tanker Presidente Rivera, en route to Marcus Hook, Pa., was loaded with 28 million gal. of medium-heavy oil when it ran aground in the Delaware. While the spill was conspicuous, the Coast Guard's marine-safety office in Philadelphia moved quickly. Cleanup crews surrounded it with booms and began pumping the remaining oil in the ship's tanks into barges in order to limit the damage. The fast response was heartening. But the U.S. really needs a way of preventing more spills...