Coast Guard

12 November 2007 -- U.S. Coard Guard investigators say they are looking at human error as the cause of a Chinese cargo ship's collision with a bridge in San Francisco.

Last week's accident did not damage the bridge, but the impact opened a 30-meter gash in the vessel's hull, puncturing two fuel tanks and spilling more than 200,000 liters of thick bunker oil into San Francisco Bay.

California has ordered an emergency cleanup of the bay and its oil-coated shoreline, and nearly 800 people are working to rescue birds, fish and other wildlife from potentially deadly pollution.    » read more »

Coast Guard Commences Routine North Slope Patrols

Nov. 5, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - New video released today by the U. S. Coast Guard documents a recent C-130 Hercules flight over the North Pole.    » read more »

October 31, 2007 -- This week, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard announced an increase, while Air Force announced a decrease. The net collective result is 927 more reservists mobilized than last week.    » read more »

Oct. 25, 2007 -- LOS ANGELES – The Coast Guard continues to provide assistance to area firefighters and rescue personnel in their ongoing efforts to battle the blazes in Southern California. So far the Coast Guard has:

-- Personnel have been assigned to work in the Joint Field Office in Pasadena, the San Diego County Emergency Operations Center and at the Harris Ranch Fire.

-- A Coast Guard C-130 from Air Station Sacramento, Calif. flew two flights into San Diego carrying a total of 3,000 cots and blankets for FEMA's use with aiding evacuees.    » read more »

Mission part of increase in Arctic operations

Oct. 25, 2007 -- WASHINGTON – The U.S. Coast Guard announced a C-130 departed Barrow, Alaska today to fly 1,183 miles to the North Pole as part of an increase in Arctic orientation flights. The crew, which includes a representative from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Barrow community, will assess changes in maritime activity in the region as recently observed climate changes provide greater access to the Arctic.    » read more »

10/24/2007 -- BOSTON – Senator John Kerry today issued the following statement about the Coast Guard’s recommendation against a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility in Fall River. The Coast Guard reached the conclusion, after exhaustive study, that the waterway is “unsuitable for LNG traffic due to navigational safety challenges” and that the risk of mishap is “unacceptably high.”    » read more »

2007-10-24 -- Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch issued the following statement concerning today's decision by the US Coast Guard that finds much of the proposed route LNG tankers would traverse to an LNG terminal at Weaver's Cove unsafe for transit:    » read more »

Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri today praised a decision by the U.S. Coast Guard to recommend against a proposal by Weaver’s Cove to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) through portions of Narragansett Bay to its proposed new marine terminal in Fall River. The Coast Guard determined that the waterways in Rhode Island and Massachusetts are not suitable for the transit of LNG vessels.

The Coast Guard ruling follows a similar decision in August by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.    » read more »

October 24, 2007 -- BOSTON – “Today, the Coast Guard officially determined that a key stretch of the Taunton River is “unsuitable” for the proposed LNG tanker traffic. The Attorney General’s Office has contended for some time that Fall River is not an appropriate site for Weaver’s Cove to build a LNG terminal. The Coast Guard’s detailed and thorough analysis identifies significant risks to navigational safety, which compelled it to prohibit the proposed LNG traffic.    » read more »

October 23, 2007 -- Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today sent a letter to Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen voicing their opposition to a plan to make the Shark River Coast Guard Station in Avon-by-the-Sea a seasonal station and urged the Admiral to reconsider the decision. (A COPY OF THE LETTER FOLLOWS.)    » read more »

October 23, 2007, WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As fires continue to rage throughout communities in Southern California, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is swiftly mobilizing federal resources and assets in coordination with the state of California and other federal agencies. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and FEMA Administrator David Paulison traveled to the affected area today to meet with state officials and asses the federal response to the wildfires.    » read more »

Oct. 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard transferred the former cutter Gentian to the Colombian Navy today in a ceremony at Coast Guard headquarters.    » read more »

Oct. 15, 2007 -- WASHINGTON – The U.S. Coast Guard announced today that Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and America’s security affairs, will deliver the Oct. 29 keynote address at the Maritime Domain Awareness Day event in New Orleans as part of the 2007 Coast Guard Innovation Expo.    » read more »

Oct. 05, 2007 -- WASHINGTON – The U.S. Coast Guard announced today the first of six HC-130J aircraft began system integration testing of new mission and sensor packages Oct. 1 in Greenville, S.C. The new equipment is designed to deliver enhanced search, detection and tracking capabilities to perform maritime search and rescue, maritime law enforcement and homeland security missions.    » read more »

Oct. 4, 2007 -- WASHINGTON – The U.S. Coast Guard announced today that its HH-65C Dolphin helicopter fleet recently completed 1 million flight hours when a crew from Air Station Barbers Point flew a life-saving medical evacuation mission off the Big Island of Hawaii the night of Sept. 20.    » read more »