Oil Spill in China now

London'sBurning · Jul 21, 2010

NPR Link with pictures of spill.

China's largest reported oil spill emptied beaches along the Yellow Sea as its size doubled Wednesday, while cleanup efforts included straw mats and frazzled workers with little more than rubber gloves.

An official warned the spill posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality as China's latest environmental crisis spread off the shores of Dalian, once named China's most livable city.

One cleanup worker has drowned, his body coated in crude.

"I've been to a few bays today and discovered they were almost entirely covered with dark oil," said Zhong Yu with environmental group Greenpeace China, who spent the day on a boat inspecting the spill.

"The oil is half-solid and half liquid and is as sticky as asphalt," she told The Associated Press by telephone.

The oil had spread over 165 square miles (430 square kilometers) of water five days since a pipeline at the busy northeastern port exploded, hurting oil shipments from part of China's strategic oil reserves to the rest of the country. Shipments remained reduced Wednesday.

State media has said no more oil is leaking into the sea, but the total amount of oil spilled is not yet clear.

Greenpeace China released photos Wednesday of inky beaches and of straw mats about 2 square meters (21 square feet) in size scattered on the sea, meant to absorb the oil.

Fishing in the waters around Dalian has been banned through the end of August, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

"The oil spill will pose a severe threat to marine animals, and water quality, and the sea birds," Huang Yong, deputy bureau chief for the city's Maritime Safety Administration, told Dragon TV.

At least one person died during cleanup efforts. A 25-year-old firefighter, Zhang Liang, drowned Tuesday when a wave threw him from a vessel, Xinhua reported.

Officials, oil company workers and volunteers were turning out by the hundreds to clean blackened beaches.

"We don't have proper oil cleanup materials, so our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks," an official with the Jin****an Golden Beach Administration Committee told the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper, in apparent exasperation.

"This kind of inefficiency means the oil will keep coming to shore. ... This stretch of oil is really difficult to clean up in the short term."

But 40 oil-skimming boats and about 800 fishing boats were also deployed to clean up the spill, and Xinhua said more than 15 kilometers (9 miles) of oil barriers had been set up to keep the slick from spreading.

China Central Television earlier reported an estimate of 1,500 tons of oil has spilled. That would amount roughly to 400,000 gallons (1,500,000 liters) — as compared with 94 million to 184 million gallons in the BP oil spill off the U.S. coast.

China's State Oceanic Administration released the latest size of the contaminated area in a statement Tuesday.

The cause of the explosion that started the spill was still not clear. The pipeline is owned by China National Petroleum Corp., Asia's biggest oil and gas producer by volume.

Friday's images of 100-foot-high (30-meter-high) flames at China's second largest port for crude oil imports drew the immediate attention of President Hu Jintao and other top leaders. Now the challenge is cleaning up the greasy plume.

"Our priority is to collect the spilled oil within five days to reduce the possibility of contaminating international waters," Dalian's vice mayor, Dai Yulin, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

But an official with the State Oceanic Administration has warned the spill will be difficult to clean up even in twice that amount of time.

Some locals said the area's economy was already hurting.

"Let's wait and see how well they deal with the oil until Sept. 1, if the oil can't be cleaned up by then, the seafood products will all be ruined," an unnamed fisherman told Dragon TV. "No one will buy them in the market because of the smell of the oil."

———

Associated Press researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.
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London'sBurning · Jul 21, 2010

Forbes link

Chinese authorities are now desperately trying to contain an expanding oil spill, now covering 165 square miles off the coast of Dalian, a port city in northeast China. The slick has doubled in size each of the last three days. Two pipeline explosions on Friday dumped 1,500 tons of crude into the waters when a 300,000-ton tanker was unloading. Much of the port has been closed, and ships are being diverted to as far away as South Korea. Unfortunately, there has been one fatality.

A fleet of 800 boats, aided by 24 specialized clean-up ships, are now working in the waters around Dalian. Authorities expect another 200 boats will be added to the effort soon.

Dalian is home to part of China’s strategic petroleum reserve--19 million barrels of it--and storage areas for state energy giants China National Petroleum Corp., which owns the ruptured pipelines, and its subsidiary, PetroChina ( PTR - news - people ). The incident occurred near the country's strategic reserve facility.

Dalian government officials, trying to downplay the matter, said on Monday that the spill could be cleaned up within five days. Central government experts, however, are not letting them get away with it. The State Oceanic Administration thought that statement was, in the words of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, "irresponsible."

Professor Yan Jienian of the China University of Petroleum expected the cleanup to take three to five months. Damage to Dalian’s ecology "could last more than a decade," noted Zhao Zhangyuan, talking to the Shanghai Morning Post. "Toxicants from the oil would be absorbed by maritime animals and eventually pose a threat to human beings through the food chain," said the analyst, who is from the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

As bad as the Dalian spill is, it is only an industrial accident. Two other spills--much smaller in environmental impact--have far greater societal consequences. The red-hot environmental story in China at the moment involves the country’s biggest gold miner and third-largest copper producer, Zijin Mining Group. Zijin has been responsible for at least two recent discharges of waste from the Zijinshan Copper Mine in coastal Fujian province.
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pgabriel · Jul 21, 2010

Just a knockoff of the gulf spill

RKREBORN · Jul 21, 2010

pgabriel said:

Just a knockoff of the gulf spill
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Yea for half the price!

rocketsjudoka · Jul 21, 2010

What I am trying to figure out is if the spill is still continuing and they haven't been able to shut off the pipeline.

I was just checking out some photos of it and it looks horrible.

http://www.csmonitor.com/CSM-Photo-Galleries/In-Pictures/China-oil-spill

There's a picture of a firefighter drowning in crude oil that looks like something out of a horror movie.

KingCheetah · Jul 21, 2010

"...our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks"
______

No comment.

sew · Jul 21, 2010

KingCheetah said:

"...our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks"
______

No comment.
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yeah... someone should probably go help them.

Uprising · Jul 21, 2010

KingCheetah said:

"...our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks"
______

No comment.
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Reminds me of my neighbor's maid who cut the grass and trimmed their plants with a pair of scissors......in Saudi Arabia....poor Filipino lady.

SwoLy-D · Jul 21, 2010

KingCheetah said:

"...our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks"
______

No comment.
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"I'll tell you what I like about Chinese people. They're hanging in there with the chopsticks. You know they've seen the fork. They're staying with the sticks. I don't know how they missed it. Going out all day on the farm with a shovel. Come on. There it is: Spoon. You're not plowing 50 acres with a couple of pool cues, mister, I'll tell you what."

OmegaSupreme · Jul 21, 2010

rocketsjudoka said:

What I am trying to figure out is if the spill is still continuing and they haven't been able to shut off the pipeline.

I was just checking out some photos of it and it looks horrible.

There's a picture of a firefigh...urethis1279748195000.jpg[/IMG] creepshow 2
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da_juice · Jul 21, 2010

They also have severe flooding which may cause damage to three gorges dam.

HombreDeHierro · Jul 21, 2010

China is like the kid who REALLY wants to be popular (America) but fails miserably. But also helps the popular kid at cheating by supplying him with cheap goods.

BrooksBall · Jul 21, 2010

2012 

tmoney1101 · Jul 21, 2010

SamFisher already devised a plan to plug these things.

Chinas cost... a measly 900 billion dollars.

BrooksBall · Jul 21, 2010

tmoney1101 said:

SamFisher already devised a plan to plug these things.

Chinas cost... a measly 900 billion dollars.
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If DD's head isn't available, they can always use Wandy Rodriguez'.

Child_Plz · Jul 21, 2010

China Central Television earlier reported an estimate of 1,500 tons of oil has spilled. That would amount roughly to 400,000 gallons (1,500,000 liters) — as compared with 94 million to 184 million gallons in the BP oil spill off the U.S. coast.
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Child_Plz · Jul 21, 2010

^whoops hit submit before I was done

If this was 400k gallons, I can't imagine what 184 million would look like if it all came out at once.

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