NEWS: Golden Gate Covered in GoldÂ… Black Gold, that is

POLITICS: Golden Gate Covered in Gold… Black Gold, that is

I was sitting around at work the other day when one of my co-workers asked me if I’d heard that a tanker had struck the Bay Bridge. I said I hadn’t and, with the memories of the 35-W bridge collapse in Minneapolis fresh in my mind, I asked if there was any damage to the Bridge. “No,” he replied, “but I guess there was a minor oil spill. Something like 150 gallons, so not too bad. Best to avoid the beach for the next few days anyway just to be safe.”

Now, IÂ’m a man of many hobbies, but hanging out at the beach is definitely not one of them. IÂ’m pasty by design, and I like to keep it that way thank you very much. Plus, do you know how hard it is to mix a good appletini with sand in the shaker? ItÂ’s a nightmare! Anyhoo, I didnÂ’t figure that avoiding the beach would be a problem, so I promptly forgot about it and went back to thinking about more creative ways I can sell out to the establishment.

Well, it turns out that the initial estimate of 150 gallons spilled was a wee bit off. Just a smidge, though.

UmÂ… what? Fifty-eight thousand?! Did they forget to carry the five or something? I mean, IÂ’m not a math person, but thatÂ’s like four times as much!

ItÂ’s a whole fuck of a lot. And it turns out that itÂ’s doing some really nasty things to the SF Bay ecosystem.

Those swirling questions include the obvious one alluded to above. Namely, why on earth was the initial leakage estimate so much lower than it turned out to be?

In other words, it took them almost 12 hours to release the information to local authorities that the biggest ecological disaster in over a decade had just happened in the San Francisco Bay. Meanwhile, they were telling everyone “no biggie.” And why?

Ok then. So in addition to making sure the Coast Guard responds to problems of this scale more quickly, we need to get them a better PR guy. That much is clear.

While the Coast Guard and local environmental organizations have begun a frantic race to clean up the oil as quickly as possible and minimize damages, state and local officials are pretty righteously pissed off.

The question of who is ultimately responsible could be more difficult than youÂ’d think. The shipÂ’s pilot, John Cota, was tested for drugs and cleared. Of course, he wasnÂ’t tested by the Coast Guard until 24 hours after the spill (apparently the Coast Guard was kind of busy or something) so who knows how accurate that test was. Moreover, the dude doesnÂ’t exactly have a spotless safety record.

To be fair to Cota, Wednesday was a heavy fog day. Of course, we have heavy fog days all the time around here. They’re so common that one could even call S.F. “Fog City” if one were so inclined. Or he might just not have known that the Bay Bridge was there. It’s only been up for 70 years. He might have been working off an old map. It could happen.

Even if they find that Cota personally was not at fault, that wonÂ’t necessarily relieve the owners of the ship from liability for the accident. The problem is that actually locating these owners is often difficult. That's because the owners of these ships often bury themselves in so many layers of sub-contracts and chartering agreements that it becomes a tangled mess of jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the tales of damage done to wildlife, particularly migratory birds, are heartbreaking. Beaches have been closed to the public as rescue workers scramble to pick up as many live birds as they can before they are killed by the toxic sludge in their feeding areas.

If nothing else, itÂ’s an ecological tragedy with a sense of timing, and not just because our state is trying to kill us. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to review a $2.5 billion punitive damages award against Exxon for their inhumanly reckless and reprehensible conduct leading up to the 1989 Valdez spill. The Court took up not only the question of whether the award was unconstitutionally excessive, but also whether Exxon should have to pay punitive damages at all. Awesome. WouldnÂ’t want to punish someone for practically criminal conduct leading to the worst ecological disaster of the modern era, would we?

Luckily, the S.F. situation is nowhere near the level of the Valdez spill (which pumped an astonishing 11 million gallons of crude into the Alaska shoreline), but itÂ’s still going to take a whole lot of work to get under control. Hopefully, the Coast Guard isnÂ’t too busy to see things through.

This really sucks...

of course the coast guard was busy... who cares about a little spilled oil, they had to figure out if it was a terrorist attack... where the hell are your priorities?

24 hours also comes in handy for B.A.C. tests.

Doesn't San Fran have harbor police that investigate accidents or is that jurisdiction left to the Coast Guard?

the bay bridge is the one that goes right into downtown right? you are confusing my memory of the area with the title of the article damn it!

i love geek humor.

Did they give any estimates on how long and how much it would cost to complete the clean up?

omg free oil. I would so be out there filling up my empty oil cans if I lived nearby. On a serious note...it seems rather heartbreaking that the wildlife pays for humans irresponsibility. Sure great, grant millions and billions in aid for the cleanup and damages involved, but I can't remember the last time I've seen a seagull walk in to my local bank to cash it's relief check.

From the context, I think they meant they were busy trying to figure out how to deal with it...

I do agree, though, that they shouldn't have taken so long though. Were they really that unprepared? Why did they even have to take that long to figure out what to do? Seems like they should train for this kind of thing. Isn't responding to situations like this part of their purpose?

And this right after your HoR speaker decided that renewable energy wasn't all that important. Wonder if this will make her think twice about taking away renewable energy incentives?

Oh, goddamnit.

I'm trying to decide which bums me out more: migratory birds covered in oil or Subrosa's dangerous obsession with appletinis.

The birds probably win in this case, but it was very close.

I have nothing to add but sarcastic comments as I watch everything around me fall apart, my life, the economy, the SF Bay.

You're Pasty?

But look on the bright side if it really fucks shit up, people won't want to live there, the cost of living will go down.

Now all we need is some super tankers to collide in Lake Superior and fuck up the Great Lakes.

But they're delicious!

(The appletinis are pretty tasty too, FYI)

I've been in so much goddamn denial over this. I've been avoiding the new press like the plague. Denial. Denial. Denial. I love SF Bay more than anywhere else. I hate it when people shit in my backyard.

All I've heard is "months" and no estimate on damage costs. So in other words, no.

Also, yes you're right that the Bay Bridge is the one that goes downtown, but due to the currents, most of the spill has drifted more towards the Golden Gate side of the bay.

Been to that Beach Once..... Cut my Foot up Really bad and didn't notice until I saw the Trail of blood on the sand.

There may be serendipity happening here as with the Current Exxon deal going on this will return attention(See: Outrage) Against Oil companies.

Sad thing is they'll just use it as an excuse to jack up prices to compensate for the fines(And still have record setting profits)

I grew up in Marin, spent a lot of time at those beaches. This upsets me quite a bit. Feel a little sick to my stomach everytime I read about it.

Oh, well if it's absorbed, then everything should be fine, right? No problem.

Ugh.

muir, pt reyes, stinson: i hope they're all okay.

Well, they're not on the lists I've seen, but who knows how the currents will take this.