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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Tanker in 1989 oil spill is sold for scrap
March 21, 2012
The Exxon Valdez has been sold for scrap 23 years after causing the worst tanker spill in U.S. history, which led to new designs for oil carriers.
Now called the Oriental Nicety, the vessel was sold for about $16 million, according to Maryland-based Global Marketing Systems, the world's biggest cash buyer of ships for demolition. The sale was disclosed Saturday.
The ship was converted into an ore carrier in 2007 and had changed owners and names four times since the 1989 accident, American Bureau of Shipping records show.
The spill, which dumped 11 million gallons of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound, was the largest in U.S. waters until the 2010 accident at BP's Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. It's still the country's largest leak from a tanker, and it led to the U.S. requirement for ships to have two hulls.
Coast Guard, local agencies responds to Barataria Bay oil discharge
March 21, 2012
NEW ORLEANS — The Coast Guard, in coordination with other state and local agencies, have completed cleanup operations, Tuesday, in Barataria Bay following the release of crude oil from a pipeline.
Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received notification at approximately 7 a.m., Saturday, that a pipeline owned by Plains All American Pipeline released approximately 150-200 barrels of oil. The pipeline runs just north of Grand Terre and Grand Isle in Barataria Bay.
Chevron halts production after leak at Brazil oil field
March 16, 2012
The US oil company Chevron says it has temporarily halted production operations in Brazil after a fresh oil leak was discovered.
It has detected what it calls a "small new seepage" of oil on the seabed close to a well in the Frade field, where there was a major leak in 2011.
The company says it has taken the step as a precaution.
Coast Guard, Ecology respond to sunken dry dock
March 19, 2012
SEATTLE — The Coast Guard and Washington Dept. of Ecology are responding to a potential environmental hazard involving a sunken 200-foot section of dry dock that contained the 140-foot tug Invader, at the Vigor Marine Shipyard in Everett, Wash., Sunday.
The dry dock began sinking on Saturday evening and stopped at approximately 12 p.m., Sunday, after making contact with the sea floor. Both the dry dock and the Invader are partially submerged, with the Invader capsized on its starboard side. There is also paint, scissor lifts, and a propane fork lift on the dry dock. The cause for the sinking has not been determined.
The owner of the Invader has confirmed that an estimated 50,000-60,000 gallons of diesel is contained in the vessel’s fuel tanks.
Navy ship-sinking disposal raises pollution fears
March 15, 2012
In 2005, the USS America aircraft carrier was towed out to sea on her final voyage. Hundreds of miles off the Atlantic coast, U.S. Navy personnel blasted the 40-year-old warship with missiles and bombs until it sank.
The massive Kitty-Hawk class carrier - more than three football fields long - came to rest in the briny depths about 300 nautical miles southeast of Norfolk.
Target practice is now how the Navy gets rid of most of its old ships, an Associated Press review of Navy records for the past dozen years has found. And they wind up at the bottom of the ocean, bringing with them amounts of toxic waste that are only estimated.
Navy documents state that among the toxic substances left onboard the America were more than 500 pounds of PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, a chemical banned by the United States in 1979, in part because it is long-lasting and accumulates throughout the food chain. Disposing of the carrier that served in the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and Desert Shield cost more than $22 million.