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The slick from an oil spill in the waters off Taean, South Chungcheong Province rapidly reached the nearby coastline with devastating effects. Authorities are concentrating their efforts on containment, but the sheer volume of leaked oil meant the slick had already reached a 150-km stretch of shore at Taean County as of 6 p.m. on Sunday, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries said.
The Chungcheong provincial government said a total of six beaches are now covered with oil. The spill, the largest in South Korea¡¯s history, has damaged some 170 farms in a 2,108 hectare area or 37 percent out of the total of 445 oyster, clam and abalone farms on 5,647 hectares in the county. The provincial government predicted that in a day or two, all fishing grounds in the area will be affected. With damage escalating to enormous proportions, the provincial government on Sunday asked the central government to declare a Taean a disaster area.
On Friday morning, an 11,800-ton crane-carrying barge of Samsung Heavy Industries collided with the Hebei Spirit, a 146,000-ton Hong Kong-registered supertanker that was at anchor 10 km northwest of Mallipo, South Chungcheong Province. The crane punctured three holes in the ship¡¯s portside containers, leading to the leak of about 10,500 tons of crude oil into the waters.
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Volunteers collect spilled oil on Mallipo Beach in Taean County, South Chungcheong Province on Saturday after a slick leaked from a supertanker in waters off Taean County reached the western coastline.
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For three days, coast guards struggled to contain the spill, mobilizing 87 ships, five helicopters and 7,200 soldiers, coast guards and civilians. But strong winds and currents and lack of equipment thwarted their efforts, with less than 300 kl of oil collected. Coast guards only plugged the holes in the oil tanker on Sunday morning, completely stopping spillage some 48 hours after the disaster.
An official with the South Chungcheong Province Disaster Center said, "We're concentrating all our energy on oil containment. But the amount of leaked oil is huge and it has damaged a wide area. We have no idea how many months it will take to restore the damaged area. We urgently need massive support from central government."
The emergency containment operation of the oil slick is expected to continue for two months. But even when the operation is complete, it will take much longer for the ecosystem to recover. Experts say leaving the cleanup to the nature¡¯s self-healing power will take at least 10 years and could take as much as 100. Dr. Kim Sang-jin at Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute said, ¡°According to foreign studies, more than 50 percent of leaked oil seeps into the water no matter how well oil leakage is contained at first. Oil which penetrates into sea sand on the coast is barely decomposed by microorganisms because the concentration is too high.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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