Welcome back to "criticism of local government, part 4"

One of the 3 major headlines from today's Chronicle.

Coast Guard failed to warn ship's pilot about hitting the Bay Bridge, investigators say

Yes, it's true. The Coast Guard let the ship's bar pilot John Coda alone! Hey i have an idea, if I'm a big big big ship that *might* be headed off course and about to slam into a major freeway bridge, let's NOT say anything - haha, that would be funny!

the rest of the story - appearing here sums up more numbers about the financial loss this nasty toxic mess has caused. Of course we can never fully total or predict the true impact on the environmental losses and devastating consequences of this spill - apparently the bunker fuel will *just settle* to the wetlands floor, and amass there - forever. Of course nature will heal itself, however slowly. But we all know things will never be exactly the same again.  Perhaps things will never be the same, for the better. Perhaps we will have such incredible safety measures that spills will become a thing of the past. Or maybe we will *gasp - say it aint so* finally rid ourselves of the nasty earth polluting substance all together (right... we can dream, cant we).

at any rate, I hope that response to disasters like this one are addressed and directly fixed. Mass firings of people that made mistakes do not interest me.  These people might have done the best they could with a failing system. I want to know that disaster response systems are in PLACE - assurance that we wont BE in a situation like this again. What is a world where you cant touch the water? No surfing. No crabbing. No commercial fishing (although that might be an okay thing for just a little bit), no swimming. dead birds. ailing sea lions and harbor seals. And maybe no more snowy plover - the birds are so endangered around ocean beach - there's no way to know if they'll survive this. Check out the baykeeper.org site for more information.

For the surfers in my crowd (are there a few?) take note: Mavericks has oil. There's no way to know if Mavericks will clear, how quickly it will clear, and if there will be a Mavericks contest this year.  A quick exerpt

"...This is toxic waste. Bunker fuel is nothing like the little tar balls surfers have been frolicking in for decades. This stuff is the nastiest of the nasty, and several. Doctors have told me they believe the substances being sown into our shore are responsible for things like Parkinsons and other nerve disorders - even in trace amounts. It is sucked up by human tissue, travelling right through cell walls.My front line experience has me shocked. I could not believe how bad the goo really is. The vapors are eye-watering and the ocean is covered in an ultra-fine film. This is no small deal. It will definitely put the Maverick’s event and the surfers at risk.”

Here's a list of closed beaches

Is it time to have a funeral for the environment yet?

well, we all knew it would happen. The Cosco Busan oil spill is now the leading metaphor for disorganization and incompetance in our governmental agencies. Everyone's pointing fingers. Who really cares what Feinstein says anyway? She's an ancient politician! Let's point our fingers and you, and you, and you. Why didnt YOU do anything to stop this oil spill nonsense?

 

 This whole mess illustrates the famous saying by Margaret Mead...

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

 

There were over 300 people out at Ocean Beach yesterday - at Taraval street - cleaning up the blobs of oil goo - with recyclable human hair mats. Incredible.  But where is this nasty of nasties going to end up? How does one compost or recycle this toxic sludge?

 

 

 

 

 

That is how I woke up feeling today. It's a gorgeous day after the nasty rainstorm of yesterday. I originally wanted to assist with clean up efforts today at one of the 9 beaches in SF. Then I read this (courtesy of Zuna Surf, the grassroots surfer collaboration that immediately began clean up efforts, despite being discouraged to do so by the government and media. Please keep up with clean up efforts through their site).

Yesterday this was on their site:

"For anyone considering going out tomorrow, please give consideration to this and take all possible precautions to avoid any direct contact with the oil."  Another surfer asked us, "Do we citizens need masks & breathing apparatus like auto mechanics and HazMat crews?  Why aren't most agency workers wearing them, even though masks aren't that protective from petrochemicals"

Although the 2002 Prestige Oil Spill of 20 million gallons in the Atlantic was a much significantly bigger spill than San Francisco's,  the 7000 Spanish fishermen who assisted with clean-up developed respiratory damage within two years of the incident.   11,000 persons involved with the EXXON-VALDEZ clean-up who had extended exposure to petrochemicals developed asthma, depressions, chemical sensitivities and more."  According to SF Chronicle reports, the Cosco Busan's oil is the nastiest around -- it's what's left from oil's refined for gasoline.  It takes a long time to break down.."

And then there is an open letter from a concerned citizen and friend of the bogger (zunasurf). read below - hence my feelings that despite the desperate situation, i dont want to be the next casualty - 2 years down the road. I have enough cancer in my family, I dont want to increase the environmental risk factors.

"I just returned from a visit to Ocean Beach to join the grassroots cleanup effort. What I experienced there was deeply disturbing. The air stinks like gasoline. After 1.5 hours there, my eyes are burning, my throat is sore, my neck is swollen, I have a headache, and my entire body stinks of gasoline – just from the air! On the ground, pools of water are covered with oil …

Along the water line, there are lines of oil globs.

The birds that haven’t yet been killed were searching for food in the oil-soaked sand. I can only imagine the long-term implications for them.

There was no government cleanup activity whatsoever. I found a handful of volunteers, picking up the oil globs with their own hands and scooping them into kitchen garbage bags. The grassroots group of about 20 people who had been working for 4 hours collected what looked like 400-500 pounds of sludge – by hand – in kitchen garbage bags. And as important as this work is, it made no noticeable difference. The scale of the problem is that large. And, this is one of the least affected beaches in the region.

I called the Fish and Wildlife service phone number for volunteering, to see if there was any way I could be part of a response that might benefit from some government resources (picking up 58,000 gallons worth of oil globs by hand does not seem like the most efficient possible way to respond), I listened to a recorded message that told me I would have to make an appointment to go to Fairfield for a training session before I could register to volunteer, and the only way to request an appointment for the training was to leave a message in a voicemail box that was full and could not accept messages.

I’m a little unsure about going to OB today myself, last night I could smell gas coming out of my skin and hair and felt like I was sleeping in a pool of gas, and I’m feeling unwell, I think it is really hazardous to be exposed to that much petrochemical material without proper protection. But still want to do something anyway. “ --Zuna Surf site

So - what to do, what to do. Maybe I'll donate more kitty litter scoops and gloves. I'm going to be out there at 2pm today - officially handing off the reins to the EPA. Hope that works...

Who is going to clean this up? Who is going to pay? Look at Alcatraz! sopping in Oil.

...the worst oil spill in the bay in like forever. Here's the thing - it's bunker fuel... extremely toxic, volatile, totally combustible. so we cant clean it like you would normal crude oil... it is despicable, and the most heartbreakingly sad thing I have personally witnessed. I wont be swimming in the SF Bay for a long long time. Estimates say minimum 6 months - but realistically more than a year or so. no surfing, swimming, nothing. And agencies aren't letting us volunteer to help save animals or clean up either. probably because they dont know how to clean up such a toxic mess. there's not enough hazmat suits to go around? the real crime is that the coast guard did not tell the surrounding communities until almost 24 hours AFTER the accident just how much was spilled. initial estimates said somewhere around 150 gallons. so everyone was really lax. but it's nearly 60,000 gallons of fuel spilled. That's exactly 1/2 the volume of the YMCA swimming pool (imagine a 25 meter X 11 meter swimming pool) is pure bunker fuel. it's so toxic that to breathe it causes major health problems. let alone to touch it.

you can read about the whole depressing thing right here at the Chronicle. Where they talk about how significant the impact will be on all the recently arrived migrating birds, like the surf scoter.

"This is where the surf scoter, the western grebe and other birds feed and spend their winters," Holcomb said. "A lot of these birds just arrived. We think there is going to be a significant impact."

Please, everyone, have a better day. Let's see some sunshine out there.