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Supervisor slams response to oil spill
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Related Topics: SAN FRANCISCO
Despite jurisdictional boundaries that kept city officials in charge of response lacking information during the first hours after the spill, appropriate resources were used and The City’s voice ultimately was heard during the massive response to the spill, according to City Department of Emergency Management, Mayor’s Office and Fire Department officials testifying before the Board of Supervisors Public Safety Committee.
Committee Chair Ross Mirkarimi hammered away at The City’s response to the spill, calling it “flawed” and a “failure” considering all the training and partnership The City has participated in planning for such disasters, particularly when it came to public notification.
Mirkarimi said there was no response — such as using city boats for reconnaissance — when initial reports had 140 gallons of oil in the Bay after the 900-foot container ship Cosco Busan clipped the base of a Bay Bridge tower Nov. 7.
The resulting gash in the port side of the ship allowed 58,000 gallons of fuel to spill into the Bay, but The City, through a variety of miscommunications, was not alerted to the size of the spill until more than 12 hours after the accident.
“In this particular case [the plan] failed,” Mirkarimi said. “I think it failed miserably.”
The response to the spill has come under scrutiny from all levels of government — federal, state and local — and officials are reviewing the oil spill response plans for any appropriate changes that should be made in the wake of this disaster.
“We followed the plan: the plan as it was written both locally, state and federally,” said Laura Phillips, director of the city’s Department of Emergency Management. “If the plan is flawed then yes, we go back and look at that plan.”
“The event showed us we need to go back and look at it collaboratively” with the U.S. Coast Guard and state officials, she said.
Comments from Examiner Readers
6:17 AM MST on Sat., Dec. 29, 2007 re: "Cosco Busan owners pay $80M to leave"
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6:12 AM MST on Sat., Dec. 29, 2007
re: "Tests show Bay water is clean"
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11:56 PM MST on Thu., Dec. 20, 2007
re: "Cosco Busan owners pay $80M to leave"
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1:23 PM MST on Thu., Dec. 20, 2007
re: "Group turns oil into food for ’shrooms"
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10:30 AM MST on Tue., Dec. 11, 2007
re: "Bay spill lawsuits pour in"
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1:50 PM MST on Tue., Dec. 4, 2007
re: "Supervisor slams response to oil spill"
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12:40 PM MST on Tue., Dec. 4, 2007
re: "Supervisor slams response to oil spill"
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12:00 PM MST on Tue., Dec. 4, 2007
re: "Supervisor slams response to oil spill"
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9:34 PM MST on Thu., Nov. 29, 2007
re: "Waters now safe, fishing to resume"
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9:32 AM MST on Thu., Nov. 29, 2007
re: "Bay Bridge bumper bits lost"
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11:34 AM MST on Mon., Nov. 26, 2007
re: "Birds death toll continues climb following oil spill"
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Examiner Reader said:
Examiner Reader said: The ship's destination was QINQDAO (Tsingtao), China, not Korea as reported above. 7 agree | 6 disagree Vote on this comment: I agree or I disagree How does one disagree with a statement of provable fact?
153 agree | 143 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
"Additionally, state officials said that tests conducted by a California Department of Fish and Game biologist last week that found what seemed to be oil found in local herring fisheries were “inclusive,” according to Lt. Rob Roberts of the Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response." Perhaps "inconclusive" was intended
130 agree | 107 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The ship's destination was QINQDAO (Tsingtao), China, not Korea as reported above.
162 agree | 166 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The Coast Guard did not turn away the Fire Department boat that came to investigate. That is false. The Coast Guard did, inform them of the 100 yard safey zoen around the Cosco Busan after the incident occurred. The statement implies that the Coast Guard is covering up this incident, which is ridiculous.
197 agree | 151 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Hey, SFoff, I live in SF and yes my county did fail miserably in their response. I just wonder if Dennis Herrera is really going to believe that he will get 25K for each day of the spill from Captain Cota.
141 agree | 145 disagree
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SFoff said:
Dear Examiner reader (first grade level, apparently)12:40pm. There was no mention of S.F. being the only county affected by the spill. The article was from a San Francisco Newspaper, regarding San Francisco's response to the oil spill. Not very obscure. It's all clear in context. Nobody was wondering why SF. "was not kept in the loop". He is questioning why S.F. did not enter the loop of it's own accord, considering how much "training and partnership" had been established. Are we supposed to be happy with our particular cities response because your county also failed miserably to do anything in time to prevent this problem? And BTW, S.F. is not the center of the Universe, just the Solar System, but thanks for the exaggeration!
161 agree | 172 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
... and San Francisco was the only city, the only county affected by this spill. It seems that SF is to self-centered in this incident, wondering why it was not kept in teh loop. It seems that many other cities and counties were affected by this incident. way to go SF. Show you true colors. If ross Mirkirami wants to be mayor in 2012 then he should just come out and proclaim that San Francisco is in fact, the center of the universe. Then he will get my vote
164 agree | 150 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Seems strange that we would be knocking ourselves up for something we had little control over and had misleading info about. One would think you can rely on the Coast Guard to provide accurate info, since this IS their jurisdiction, but to get the info wrong hours later and even when others are pointing out that it's a LARGE spill (and to ignore this emergency) seems unconscionable. This, to me, should be about the ship crashing into the bridge tower and the bungled response of the Coast Guard, their effect on the greater Bay Area and effective preventive measures.
163 agree | 146 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Its my understanding two-thirds of the 58,000 gallons of oil is unaccounted for and will remain so. The water quality of San Francisco Bay was questionable before this event. Some sort of blanket statement regarding the "safeness" of the bay water seems a bit dubious to me.
322 agree | 171 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Having said that black made it harder to find the missing pieces of plastic lumber, they're going to use black again for the replacement?!! Foolish.
396 agree | 141 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Very self indulgent of you to equate an oil spill dead birds and your situation. Get over it already.
250 agree | 190 disagree
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