Marine Pollution Control8631 West Jefferson Avenue
Detroit, MI 48209 USA
313.849.2333 - 24/hour
11320 E Lakewood Blvd., #11
Holland, MI 49424
800-521-8232 – 24/Hour
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Oil-containment barge under construction in Bellingham spills oil
BELLINGHAM - Construction of an oil-containment vessel destined for Alaska has been plagued by minor oil spills in the past few weeks, prompting the state to threaten fines against the builder.
Three spills, each releasing about one quart of oil into Whatcom Waterway, came from leaks in pressurized hydraulic systems on July 24, and Aug. 4 and 6. The state's notice of violation was sent to Superior Energy Services, which is building the oil-containment barge Arctic Challenger at the Bellingham Shipping Terminal, 629 Cornwall Ave.
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Cleaner Fuel for Cruise Ships and Other Big Vessels from Ingredients in Detergents, Medicines
ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2012) — Scientists have described the development of a new fuel mixture to ease the major air pollution and cost problems facing cruise ships, oil tankers and container ships. These vessels tend to burn the cheapest and most highly polluting form of diesel fuel.
George N. Harakas, Ph.D., explained that large ships have slow-speed engines designed to burn inexpensive, thick "bunker fuels" that literally are the bottom-of-the-barrel from the petroleum refining process. Bunker fuels are high in substances (such as sulfur) that produce air pollution, which creates a serious health and environmental problem when ships cruise along the shore or drop anchor in ports of heavily populated urban areas.
Harakas and colleagues from the Maine Maritime Academy and SeaChange Group LLC developed a fuel by adding two ingredients to low-sulfur diesel to produce "Bunker GreenTM" fuel, a member of the Eco-HybridTM family of fuels. One ingredient was glycerol, a thick, colorless liquid widely used in foods, medicines and other products. Glycerol is a byproduct of biodiesel production, making it a cost-effective, carbon-neutral and domestically sustainable fuel. Blending glycerol and diesel fuel is literally like trying to mix oil and water. The use of a surfactant, a class of chemicals similar to ingredients that boost the cleaning power of laundry detergents, was used to solve that problem.
Coast Guard talks pollution control, operations
August 20, 2012
The service says the public is obligated by law to report all pollution.
The Coast Guard Jacksonville Sector has responded to roughly 70 reports of pollution spills on waterways since the beginning of the year.
Only about 15 ended up being serious, but the Coast Guard wants the public to understand that any potential pollutant problem needs to be reported by law and has to be investigated.
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New Oil Spill Dispersant Made from Ingredients in Peanut Butter, Chocolate, Ice Cream
ScienceDaily (Aug. 20, 2012) — With concerns about the possible health and environmental effects of oil dispersants in the Deepwater Horizon disaster still fresh in mind, scientists now described a new dispersant made from edible ingredients that both breaks up oil slicks and keeps oil from sticking to the feathers of birds.
Exxon Valdez Dismantled for Scrap
August 15, 2012
Last month, reports Shanta Barley in Nature, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the ore carrier Oriental Nicety could be beached and dismantled for scrap in the Indian port of Alang, the world's largest scrap metal yard.
Nothing inherently unusual in that, perhaps. But the story is notable given that before it was the Oriental Nicety, the vessel in question was known as the Dong Fang Ocean, and before that had been dubbed, in reverse order, the Mediterranean, the S/R Mediterranean and the Sea River Mediterranean. The second name it had carried in its life was the Exxon Mediterranean; and before that, for four years from its launch in 1986, it was an oil tanker known as the Exxon Valdez.