Senator Boxer Statement on Coast Guard Report on San Francisco Bay Oil Spill Response

January 28, 2008 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) made the following statement on a report released today on the Coast Guard’s response to the November 7, 2007 Cosco Busan accident that resulted in more than 58,000 gallons of toxic bunker fuel spilling into the San Francisco Bay.

Boxer said, “I welcome the report of the ISPR Team, because I believe it is critical that we learn from the mistakes made during the response to this spill and ensure that they are not repeated.

“The report confirms what many of us suspected early on—namely that a language barrier and communications problems, lack of coordination and inexperienced personnel contributed to failures in the response.

“The idea that the Coast Guard team had to resort to drawings and hand signals to communicate with the crew because they didn’t have an interpreter is very troubling. This clearly delayed efforts to identify the magnitude of the spill, which ultimately resulted in the closure of 18 beaches across five counties and killed more than 2,000 birds.

“In addition, I think everyone should be concerned that the company overseeing the clean up may have made response decisions based on cost, not results.

“This report contains a number of useful recommendations: there should be an experienced Pollution Investigator on call at all times and we should ensure that all Command Center responders have training in oil spill response. We must develop guidelines for operations and response under adverse weather conditions, better utilize the VTS during emergencies, and ask the Coast Guard and the State to come up with better plans for working with volunteers after a spill.”

Source: Senator Barbara Boxer

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •