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Tests show Bay water is clean
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The Army Corps of Engineers uses “pom-poms” by to test Bay waters for further contamination from the Nov. 7 Cosco Busan oil spill.
SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Although concerns of residual oil from the Nov. 7 Cosco Busan spill still linger around the Bay, two separate tests have shown no conclusive proof that fuel has threatened an important fishery in the North Bay or a shipping channel in Oakland.
There were concerns that residual fuel may have sunk — by becoming attached to pieces of dirt or sand — into the sediment around Oakland’s shipping channels, impeding the Oakland 50 dredging project.
But a test done this morning came back conclusively clean, with no sign of Cosco Busan oil or other contaminants, Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman Maria Lee said.
The project — to deepen the channel to 50 feet by removing approximately 12 million cubic yards of sediment — is contributing more than 2 million cubic feet of that dirt to the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project.
“Before we do any dredging, especially when it involves material placed in a reuse site, all the material is tested,” she said. “We planned for this testing a long time ago, but this was an extra precautionary note after the Cosco Busan spill that the Corps decided we should do.”
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.
Roberts added that the collection was not done to state standards and that his agency will be retesting the area this weekend.
The fishery in question is a section of Bay covered in eel grass — like thick, long blades of grass — that acts as a nursery for herring.
“We couldn’t tell if it had actually come from the eel grass, it was contaminated so we don’t know where it came from, so we’re going to do a more controlled sampling process,” he said. “The sampling wasn’t done in the most scientific way, and because this is a criminal case, we need those standards to be in place.”
In both cases, the water is tested using groups of “pompoms” just slightly larger than a basketball dragged by boats. The absorbent plastic material of the pompoms — similar to Swiffer kitchen cleaning wipes — is then analyzed for oil or other materials.
Damage to Bay habitats or shipping channels would become part of any criminal cases against the Cosco Busan’s owners, which would likely include assessed values to any damaged environments or species, Roberts 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?
150 agree | 140 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
123 agree | 101 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The ship's destination was QINQDAO (Tsingtao), China, not Korea as reported above.
158 agree | 163 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.
193 agree | 147 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.
137 agree | 141 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!
157 agree | 167 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
160 agree | 146 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.
159 agree | 143 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.
318 agree | 168 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.
391 agree | 137 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.
245 agree | 185 disagree
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