Column: November 1, 2012
Five years ago, on the morning of November 7, the 900-foot container ship Cosco Busan left Oakland in heavy fog with low visibility. It side-swiped a Bay Bridge tower, ripping open two fuel tanks and pouring more than 53,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay.
Initially, the ship...
Blog Post: May 17, 2012
Birds and other wildlife coated with oil during oil spills will be more likely to get rescue and care under Baykeeper-sponsored legislation being considered in the California Senate. Update: The legislation, SB 1192, has passed the Senate and is now being considered in the California Assembly. SB...
Blog Post: May 9, 2012
The owner and operator of the Dubai Star, a tanker that spilled 422 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay in 2009, will pay $1.96 million to settle violations of state clean water laws. The payment will be used primarily to restore wildlife habitat and enhance public recreation in the East Bay.
Oil...
Blog Post: February 14, 2012
The riskiest part of the cleanup of oil spilled from a tugboat in the Richmond harbor has succeeded. The World War II-era Tiger tugboat sank in on December 11, and oil from leaky fuel tanks began seeping out. Baykeeper has been closely monitoring the process of cleaning up this potential oil spill...
Blog Post: January 6, 2012
Baykeeper received a briefing from the Coast Guard on the current status of the oil spill caused by a sunken tug boat in Richmond's Inner Harbor last month. We're pleased to report that oil is no longer actively seeping from the tug, and efforts are underway to remove the remaining fuel oil from...
Blog Post: December 14, 2011
On Sunday, December 11, a WWII-era tugboat with as much as 52,000 gallons of fuel oil on board sank into Richmond's Inner Harbor. Oil was soon observed leaking into surrounding waters.
The day prior, approximately 1,290 gallons of diesel fuel escaped from UC Berkeley's Stanley Hall into the storm...
Press Release: October 9, 2011
Sacramento, CA – Finally, the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response – part of the Department of Fish and Game – is set to get an increase in funding from oil companies doing business in the state. AB 1112 was signed by Governor Brown October 8.
California oil spill prevention and...
Blog Post: October 9, 2011
Governor Brown has signed Baykeeper's AB 1112 to provide much-needed funding for oil spill prevention and response measures in California. The budget for California's Office of Spill Prevention and Response was set for huge cuts because oil companies were fighting a modest increase in fees to fund...
Blog Post: October 5, 2011
Gulf Coast Waterkeepers have released a new "State of the Gulf" report with updates on the current health of the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding shorelines, eighteen months after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and began the months-long BP oil disaster. The report lays out seven key findings and...
Blog Post: September 19, 2011
Federal, state and local government agencies have announced their financial settlement with those responsible for the Cosco Busan oil spill which dumped 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay on November 7, 2007. Read the San Francisco Chronicle article about the settlement.
The settlement...