The United States should recall its plan to conduct offshore drilling which might threaten the state of New Jersey environment and economy, US Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, and Congressman Frank Pallone said in a letter to US President Barack Obama. “The plan’s proposal for oil production in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia would put New Jersey’s economy and shore communities at significant risk,” Menendez, Booker and Pallone said Friday. “We strongly urge you [President Obama] to consider removing all Atlantic planning areas prior to the issuance of the next draft of the Five-Year Plan.”
Lawmakers are concerned that in case of a drilling accident the state will see consequences similar to those after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused long term marine and coastal damage, according to the letter.
Menendez, Booker and Pallone urged the White House to consider offshore energy production on wind power.
“In our home state of New Jersey, and for shore towns up and down the Atlantic coast, offshore oil drilling would present a risk to communities and businesses that depend on a clean and thriving coastline,” lawmakers said.
This week President Obama’s administration released a five-year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program which may lead to the United States drilling for gas and oil in portions of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as opening new sections of the Gulf of Mexico for exploration. http://sputniknews.com/us/20150131/1017577632.html#ixzz3QOQA2NPL 31/1/15 --
Sea level rise in the past two decades has accelerated faster than previously thought in a sign of climate change threatening coasts from Florida to Bangladesh, a study said today. The report, reassessing records from more than 600 tidal gauges, found that readings from 1901-90 had over-estimated the rise in sea levels. Based on revised figures for those years, the acceleration since then was greater than so far assumed.
The report said the earlier readings were incomplete or skewed by local factors such as subsidence.
The new analysis "suggests that the acceleration in the past two decades is 25 percent higher than previously thought," Carling Hay, a Canadian scientist at Harvard University and lead author of the study in the journal Nature, told Reuters.
The study said sea level rise, caused by factors including a thaw of glaciers, averaged about 1.2 millimetres (0.05 inch) a year from 1901-90 - less than past estimates - and leapt to 3 mm a year in the past two decades, apparently linked to a quickening thaw of ice.
Last year, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated the 1901-90 rate at 1.5 mm a year, meaning less of a leap to the recent rate around 3 mm.
The Harvard-led study said the new findings might affect projections of the future pace of sea level rise, especially those based on historical trends.
John Church, a top IPCC author at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia, told Reuters he did not expect any impact on the IPCC's core sea level projections, which are not based on past trends.
IPCC scenarios, which range from a sea level rise of 28 to 98 cms this century, are based on the processes driving sea level change, for instance how ice in Greenland reacts to rising temperatures or the expansion of water as it warms, he said.
Stefan Rahmstorf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a world expert in past sea levels, said further analysis was needed to pin down 20th century sea level rise.
The new findings confirm that "sea level is rising and ... the rise has accelerated, with the most recent rates being the highest on record," he told Reuters.
Sea level rise is gnawing away at shores from Miami to Shanghai. In cities such as Jakarta, the rise is aggravated by big local subsidence. [buenosairesherald.com] 14/1/15 -- - Related:
A tugboat arrived Saturday night to tow the disabled Russian container ship carrying hundreds of tons of fuel further away from Canada's British Columbia shores and into more sheltered waters, a spokesperson with the Canadian Forces' Joint Rescue Coordination Center said. "When they get the vessel under tow, they'll first head in a northwesterly direction and get it further from the coastline and eventually into more sheltered waters to the north of Haida Gwaii… Then a decision will be made on where to take it," Navy Lt. Pendergast told Canadian TV news channel CTVNews. He said the Barbara Foss tugboat arrived in the area after 5 p.m. local time and was hooking onto the drifting Simushir vessel.
Officials said there was no risk of the ship hitting rocks after it was moved 24 nautical miles (44 kilometers) away from the rocky shore. Fears were it could spill its cargo of 400 metric tons of bunker fuel and 60 metric tons of diesel, triggering an environmental disaster. On Friday, British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak said "the province is also contacting its partners in the B.C. Pacific States Oil Spill Task Force both to notify them of the risk and to ask them to provide mutual aid as needed based on the outcome of efforts to restore power to the vessel".
The Simushir carrier ship, with a crew of 11, was going from the US state of Washington to Russia when it lost power on Friday morning. The captain was injured and rescued from the vessel.
British Columbia still remembers the massive oil spill that occurred near Alaska in 1989, when Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil over the next days. (RIA Novosti) 19/10/14 -- -
Canadian and US coast guards have been struggling to tow a 135-meter Russian cargo ship after it lost power in gale force wind conditions. As 450 tons of bunker oil and diesel were on board the ship, the situation prompted fears of an ecological disaster.
Cargo ship Simushir went adrift on Thursday off the West coast of Haida Gwaii, located near British Columbia. The vessel left Everett, Washington and was bound to Russia.
As the ship became incapacitated amid the storm, its plight raised an alarm in the regional media, as 400 tons of oil and about 50 tons of diesel fuel it was carrying were deemed enough for an environmental catastrophe, in case the vessel ran aground...............................http://rt.com/news/197192-ship-adrift-oil-canada/
GIGLIO ISLAND Italy - Maneouvres began early on Wednesday to remove the rusty hulk of the Costa Concordia cruise liner from the Italian island where it struck rocks and capsized two years ago, killing 32 people.
A convoy of 14 vessels, led by the tug boat Blizzard, will start to tow the Concordia later on Wednesday to a port near Genoa in northern Italy where it is due to arrive on Sunday, before being broken up for scrap.
The once-gleaming white luxury liner sank off the holiday island of Giglio in January 2012 after sailing too close to shore. Its wreck has remained there ever since as engineers embarked on one of the largest maritime salvage operations in history. Over the past week, salvagers have slowly lifted the 114,500-tonne ship from underwater platforms by pumping air into 30 large metal boxes, or sponsons, attached to the hull. Franco Porcellachia, engineer in charge of the salvage, said on Tuesday that his team had done everything in their power to make sure the ship, which is around two-and-a-half times the size of the Titanic, was structurally sound.
"When we are in sight of the port of Genoa, we can declare victory," said Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection service, on Wednesday.
The whole salvage operation is set to cost the ship's owners Costa Crociere, a unit of Carnival Corp over 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion), its chief executive said earlier this month....................http://www.todayonline.com/world/wrecked-concordia-finally-headed-scrapyard-after-massive-salvage-operation?singlepage=true 23/7/14 -- -
Super typhoon Rammasun, the strongest to hit South China since 1973, made landfall in Wenchang, South China's Hainan Province on Friday afternoon, and continued to ravage Guangdong Province on Friday evening.
According to the National Meteorological Center, the typhoon landed in Wenchang packing rainstorms and winds of up to 60 meters per second and the lowest central atmospheric pressure dropped to 910 hectopascals.
The meteorological center forecast that some of the coastal areas in Hainan, Guangdong and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region would have to sustain gales and heavy rainstorms until Sunday. The rainfall is expected to surpass 600 millimeters in some of the regions. The center is warning against possible geological disasters including landslides and mudslides in Yunnan Province and Hainan, and water logging in farmland as well as in-city surface water logging in Hainan, southwestern Guangdong and southern Guangxi.
Although more than 198,000 fishermen and residents in areas in possible danger in Hainan had been evacuated by 8 am Friday, around 1,300 people were trapped in rural Wenchang soon after the typhoon landed, according to the Hainan provincial command center for flood prevention, drought control and typhoon response. At least one person died in Wenchang, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Hainan provincial tourism authority issued an urgent circular on Friday and Guangdong provincial authorities put their emergency response system at the highest level.
Typhoon Rammasun is expected to land in Guangxi early on Saturday morning. "This is possibly the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Guangxi since 1949," said Zhang Ling, chief forecaster at the Typhoon and Marine Forecast Center of the China Meteorological Administration.
The typhoon had killed 64 and injured another 100-plus in the Philippines by Friday since it made landfall there Tuesday night. By Ni Dandan Source:Global Times 19/7/14 -- - Related:
A Turkish cargo ship that ran aground off the Greek island of Mykonos may lead to an “environmental catastrophe,” officials have warned. The vessel, named the Yusuf Çepnioğlu, had been anchored at a port in the western province of Izmir en route to Tunisia. It was abandoned by its crew after it ran into rocks off the coast of Mykonos and began taking in water on March 7. The ship was carrying 200 tons of fuel. The container ship remains pinned to the rocks, coast guard authorities. There are concerns that strong winds and waves may cause some of its cargo to come loose and cause a spill near the island. Responding to a distress call on March 8, a U.S. ship sent a search and rescue helicopter to the location where the vessel had run aground. The Bataan is in the Aegean Sea on a regular deployment in the 6th Fleet area of operations. Officials said a joint operation to tow the ship to safety and ensure that there was no leakage was currently underway. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-ship-that-ran-aground-in-aegean-sea-may-cause-catastrophe.aspx?pageID=238&nID=63399&NewsCatID=340 10/3/14 -- - Related:
Crew rescued by coastguard after water floods engine room. KOMOTINI, Greece Fourteen sailors had to be rescued after a Turkish cargo ship ran aground near the Greek island of Mykonos on Friday night. The 6,928-deadweight tonne container ship, the 'Yusuf Cepnioglu', had been anchored at a port in the western Turkish city of Izmir [Σμύρνη] en route to Tunisia. The ship, with 14 personnel aboard, ran aground on the northwestern shore of Mykonos at 03:30 GMT on Friday night. The Greek coast guard announced that 11 of the crew were rescued by coast guard boats. Helicopters were sent to the scene to rescue the remaining three. There were no reports of any injuries. The ship, which was carrying 204 containers, ran ashore after its engine room took on water.
An Anadolu Agency correspondent at the scene has reported seeing marine pollution near the shore.
Την εγκατάλειψη του τουρκικού εμπορικού πλοίου που προσάραξε το απόγευμα της Παρασκευής σε βραχώδη περιοχή βόρεια των ακτών της Μυκόνου ανακοίνωσε το πρωί του Σαββάτου το Λιμενικό Σώμα.
Σύμφωνα με τις τελευταίες πληροφορίες, στο πλοίο προκλήθηκε μεγάλη εισροή υδάτων και έχουν κατακλυστεί από νερά το μηχανοστάσιο, οι δεξαμενές καυσίμων και ο χώρος του φορτίου.
Στο σκάφος επέβαιναν συνολικά 14 άτομα πλήρωμα, όλοι Τούρκοι υπήκοοι, εκ των οποίων οι 11 παραλήφθηκαν από πλωτό σκάφος του Λιμενικού και οι άλλοι τρεις από ελικόπτερο Super Puma.
To πλοίο, που ήταν φορτωμένο με 204 κοντέινερ, είχε αναχωρήσει από τη Σμύρνη με προορισμό την Τυνησία.
Έως στιγμής δεν έχει αναφερθεί θαλάσσια ρύπανση στη θαλάσσια περιοχή, ενώ πλωτά σκάφη του λιμενικού βρίσκονται στο σημείο.
China’s meteorological authority has issued an alert for super typhoon Usagi that is expected to hit the country’s southern coast.
Usagi was upgraded to a super typhoon at around 5 p.m. Beijing time on Thursday. This is the strongest classification for a Typhoon.
It has been predicted to hit the coastal region between China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and southeastern Fujian Province on Sunday evening.
In response, the State Oceanic Administration has initiated an I-class emergency response for the typhoon, the highest level of the nation's maritime disaster response system. The Administration says Usagi may become one of the strongest typhoons to hit China’s southeastern coast this year. english.cntv.cn 20/9/13 ----
Powerful typhoon hits Taiwan, Philippines...
TAIPEI, Taiwan: The most powerful typhoon of the year was sweeping through the Luzon Strait on Saturday, battering island communities and drenching southern Taiwan and the northern Philippines. Super Typhoon Usagi had maximum sustained winds of 222 kph (139 mph) and gusts exceeding 260 kph (163 mph) early Saturday, and was 550 kilometers south of Taipei, Taiwan's capital, according to the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. A storm achieves super typhoon status when winds reach 240 kph (150 mph). In the Philippines, Usagi triggered landslides and power outages in parts of the north of the country, including Batanes province where it made landfall early Saturday. No casualties have been reported. China's National Meteorological Center announced a red alert, the observatory's highest, as the storm maintained its track toward Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta. The observatory warned Usagi will impact coastal areas of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. The US Navy's warning center predicted that Usagi will make landfall near Hong Kong with weaker but dangerous sustained winds of 180 kph (113 mph) early Monday morning. In Taiwan, nearly 2,500 people were evacuated from flood-prone areas and remote mountainous regions. Torrential rains were reported along the eastern coast and in the south as officials warned of cumulative rainfall of 1,000 millimeters (39 inches) along the east coast. Usagi retains a massive diameter of 1,100 kilometers (680 miles), with its outer rain bands extending across the main northern Philippine island of Luzon and all of Taiwan. Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau warned winds of 100 kph (63 mph) could hit Taipei. The Office of Civil Defense in Manila said at least five families had to be evacuated from their homes in mountainous Benguet province after several landslides damaged houses and roads. Pockets of power outages were reported in at least five northern provinces, where several roads and bridges were impassable. The government's weather bureau said Usagi was forecast to blow out of Philippine territory by Saturday evening. In Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific Airways said Saturday that flights are unaffected but warned of delayed and canceled flights from Sunday evening to Monday morning. The airline urged passengers to postpone non-essential travel on those two days.
Greenpeace dénonce la loi littoral adoptée en mai en Espagne, qui favorise l'urbanisation rampante des côtes et fait faire au pays "des pas de géant en arrière" en matière de protection de l'environnement, dans un rapport présenté jeudi 8 août à Madrid. "La nouvelle loi nous inquiète énormément. Cela nous ramène aux années 1960 en matière de protection de l'environnement", a affirmé Pilar Marcos, une responsable de la protection du littoral de Greenpeace, lors d'une conférence de presse. "Nous avons littéralement avalé la côte espagnole", a-t-elle dénoncé. La loi controversée, adoptée en mai par le Parlement, prévoit notamment de réduire dans certains cas de 100 mètres à 20 mètres la frange de littoral devant être soumise à un contrôle très strict avant que des travaux, de réparation ou de rénovation, y soient autorisés. Greenpeace prévoit d'ailleurs de remettre en octobre à l'Union européenne une pétition contre ce texte qui a déjà recueilli 150 000 signatures, estimant que cette loi viole neuf directives européennes. LA MOITIÉ DE LA CÔTÉ DÉJÀ CONSTRUITE "Près de la moitié de la côte Méditerranée a déjà été construite et nous autorisons les 50 % restants à être avalés par le béton", a regretté Pilar Marcos. Selon Greenpeace, la part des terres construites dans les 500 mètres de la côte méditerranéenne a bondi de 24 % entre 1987 et 2005 pour atteindre 43 %, tandis que les anciens villages de pêcheurs ont été livrés au développement touristique. Si le rythme se poursuit, la côte méditerranéenne pourrait être "totalement construite" d'ici cent vingt-quatre ans. Même si la crise a brutalement freiné la construction en Espagne en 2008, la demande de logements sur la côte sud reste forte et la nouvelle loi rend plus facile les autorisations locales pour des projets immobiliers, selon le rapport. "Sous l'excuse de la nécessité de sortir de la récession, il y a un risque que n'importe quel projet de construction puisse être approuvé en raison de contrôles plus laxistes, voire inexistants", s'est alarmée Pilar Marcos. http://www.lemonde.fr 8/8/13 --
Water at nearly all of Europe’s beaches – and most of its rivers and lakes – are clean enough to swim in. And the quality is improving.
If you're planning a trip to the beach this year you can rest easy – the water at 95% of beaches is clean enough to meet minimum EU standards. Of bathing sites in rivers and lakes, 91% make the grade. In the latest report, most sites were given an excellent rating for 2012 – the same proportion as in 2011. But more managed a “sufficient” rating than in the previous year. 2012 water testing The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) annual bathing water report looked at samples from more than 22 000 bathing sites around Europe. Water was tested for harmful pollutants and bacteria, such as E. coli – possibly from sewage or livestock waste. Best... and worst performers
The top performers in 2012 were Cyprus and Luxembourg, with all listed bathing sites found to be “excellent”. Malta, Croatia and Greece were the next best, with over 90% rated “excellent”.
The worst performers in terms of not meeting minimum standards were Belgium (13%), the Netherlands (7%) and the United Kingdom (6%). In the UK, 58.2% of 629 bathing sites tested were excellent, 35.6% were of good or sufficient quality, but 37 fell short of the required minimum. Although water quality has improved overall, both the Commission and the EEA want more to be done to ensure all the EU’s waters are suitable for bathing and drinking. This means cutting down on pollution from sewage, improving water drainage from farms and farmland and better control of animal waste affecting beaches. http://ec.europa.eu/news/environment/130805_en.htm 5/8/13 -- - Related:
Την αρωγή της Ελλάδας και του Ισραήλ ζητεί η Λευκωσία για την απομάκρυνση μεγάλης ποσότητας πυρομαχικών του στρατού, τα οποία θάφτηκαν στη νότια ακτή του νησιού την περίοδο 1980-93. Την είδηση διέδωσε ο υπουργός Άμυνας της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας Φώτης Φωτίου, ο οποίος σημείωσε ότι θα ζητήσει επίσης τη συνδρομή του Ευρωπαϊκού Οργανισμού για την Ασφάλεια και τη Συνεργασία.
Σύμφωνα με τον Φωτίου, στον πυθμένα της θάλασσας υπάρχουν 167 διαφορετικοί τύποι πυρομαχικών, όπως νάρκες, χειροβομβίδες και βλήματα πυροβολικού.
Δεν είναι γνωστή η ακριβής τοποθεσία στην οποία βρίσκονται θαμμένα τα πυρομαχικά, τα οποία αφενός εγκυμονούν κινδύνους για τους ψαράδες και το περιβάλλον, αφετέρου μπορούν να επηρεάσουν τους σχεδιασμούς της Λευκωσίας για την εξόρυξη φυσικού αερίου.
Cyprus asks Israel, Greece to assist in clearing munitions dumped offshore
According to the Cypriot defense minister there are 167 types of munitions dumped by Cypriots including mines, hand grenades and artillery shells at the bottom of the sea, but their exact location is uncertain.
Cyprus' defense minister says he has asked Greece and Israel for help in getting rid of a large amount of discarded army munitions that were dumped off the island nation's southern coast between 1980 and 1993. Fotis Fotiou said Saturday that he will also seek assistance from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Fotiou said there are 167 types of munitions dumped by Cypriots including mines, hand grenades and artillery shells at the bottom of the sea, but their exact location is uncertain. The minister said authorities will move quickly to deal with the munitions because apart from posing a danger to fishermen and the environment, they could also hamper the country's plans to develop newfound offshore gas deposits off its southern coast. www.haaretz.com8/6/13
Ειδικοί ετοιμάζονται να προσδέσουν συρματόσχοινο για ρυμούλκηση στην πλωτή εξέδρα γεώτρησης Kulluk, που ανήκει στην πετρελαϊκή εταιρεία Royal Dutch Shell. Η εξέδρα ρίχτηκε από τα κύμματα στις ακτές της Αλάσκας στις 31 Δεκεμβρίου, όταν μετά από μία σφοδρή καταιγίδα αποκόπηκε από το ρυμουλκό πλοίο και παρασύρθηκε. Πάνω στην εξέδρα βρίσκονται πάνω από 500 χιλ. λίτρα πετρελαίου και ντίζελ. Προς το παρόν δεν υπάρχουν ενδείξεις διαρροής. Ωστόσο, στην εξέδρα βρέθηκε θαλασσινό νερό, γεγονός που υποδεικνύει ότι η εξωτερική επένδυση μπορεί να έχει υποστεί βλάβη. .ruvr.ru 6/1/13 -- ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ- VIDEO:
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew overfly the conical drilling unit Kulluk Shell's Kulluk platform aground on the southeast shore of Sitkalidak Island about 40 miles southwest of Kodiak City, Alaska, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. The on scene weather conditions were 40 mph winds with 20-foot seas. U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 1st Class Sara Francis.
Σταμάτησε η διαρροή από την πλατφόρμα εξόρυξης πετρελαίου Kulluk της Shell, η οποία προσέκρουσε σε στεριά κατά τη ρυμούλκησή της από την Αρκτική προς την Αλάσκα πριν από λίγες μέρες, γεγονός που καθιστά ευκολότερη την διαδικασία ρυμούλκησης, ανακοίνωσαν αργά χθες το βράδυ αξιωματούχοι. Έξι εμπειρογνώμονες επωφελήθηκαν από την μικρή βελτίωση του καιρού για να προσεγγίσουν το κατάστρωμά της, ανακοίνωσε ο επικεφαλής της αμερικανικής ακτοφυλακής Πολ Μέλερ. Την Δευτέρα, η πλατφόρμα προσέκρουσε στη στεριά όταν το παγοθραυστικό που την ρυμουλκούσε υπέστη μηχανική βλάβη εν μέσω καταιγίδας. Η πλατφόρμα Kulluk διαμέτρου 81 μέτρων μετέφερε 540.000 λίτρα ντίζελ και 45.000 λίτρα πετρελαίου λίπανσης, δήλωσε η Ντάρσι Σενκλέρ, εκπρόσωπος του κέντρου διοίκησης της ακτοφυλακής που έχει αναλάβει τον χειρισμό του ατυχήματος. Και τα 18 μέλη του πληρώματος της 290 εκατομμυρίων δολαρίων πλατφόρμας της Shell διασώθηκαν. Την πλατφόρμα ρυμουλκούσαν προς το Σιάτλ για συντήρηση όταν προσέκρουσε στη στεριά στην ανατολική ακτή του ακατοίκητου νησιού Σιτκαλιντάκ στον Κόλπο της Αλάσκας. .energypress.gr 3/1/13 -- ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ:
Πλατφόρμα που μετέφερε τρυπάνι της πετρελαϊκής εταιρείας Shell προσάραξε την περασμένη Δευτέρα στις ακτές της Αλάσκας, λόγω κακοκαιρίας. Σύμφωνα με ανακοίνωση αξιωματούχων της εταιρείας και της κυβέρνησης το πλοίο «Kulluk» ξέφυγε από την πορεία του και χτύπησε σε βράχια κοντά στο νησί Κόντιακ. Τα 18 μέλη του πληρώματος είχαν ήδη εγκαταλείψει το πλοίο από το Σάββατο με τη συνδρομή της Αμερικανικής Ακτοφυλακής λόγω των κινδύνων από τις κακές καιρικές συνθήκες, καθώς έπνεαν άνεμοι με ταχύτητα 100 χιλιόμετρα την ώρα και η στάθμη της θάλασσας στον Κόλπο της Αλάσκας είχε ανέβει κατά 11 μέτρα. .protothema.gr 2/1/13 --- - ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ:
Photograph courtesy Sara Francis, U.S. Coast Guard
The oil rig Kulluk is seen here at sea on Saturday, 80 miles south of Kodiak, as its crew is airlifted to safety. The 20-year-old conical rig was named in 1982 by an Inuvik schoolgirl; the word means "thunder" in her native language. The ship has a draft of 41 feet (13 meters); it is beached in water that is 24 to 48 feet deep (7 to 15 meters), about 1,648 feet (500 meters) from shore, says the Coast Guard (see map). The Coast Guard says that the Kulluk is upright and stable with no signs of environmental impact. But on Tuesday, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation official Steve Russell warned, "The Kulluk still presents a significant threat to Ocean Bay and the surrounding areas." The joint government-industry task force, the Unified Command, planned multiple flyovers on Wednesday to assess the site. Once conditions are deemed safe, the plan is to place a team aboard the vessel to get a better view of its condition. But weather conditions continued to be severe, with flight restrictions in place. The Coast Guard was maintaining a safety zone of one nautical mile around the vessel this morning. The Coast Guard said it had no immediate estimate of the costs of the response operations, but said that Shell was assuming responsibility for the effort. Coast Guard Captain Paul Mehler said the response effort had benefited from the extensive oil-spill planning and joint training in advance of Shell's first Arctic drilling last summer. But when asked if the plans had ever anticipated events like those unfolding this past week, he said, "This particular scenario—certainly not. I don't think we could have come up with a scenario as this has played out. This has been that challenging."
Η διάσωση της εξέδρας γεώτρησης της Shell αναβάλλεται
Οι προσπάθειες διάσωσης της εξέδρας γεώτρησης της εταιρείας Royal Dutch Shell, που κάθισε στα αβαθή στις ακτές της Αλάσκας αναβλήθηκαν για αργότερα λόγω των ισχυρών ανέμων, μεταδίδει το BBC. Η πλωτή εξέδρα γεώτρησης Kulluk παρασύρθηκε στα ανοικτά των ακτών της Αλάσκας και προσάραξε στις νήσους Κόντιακ τη Δευτέρα. Σύμφωνα με την αμερικανική Ακτοφυλακή, η κατάσταση προς το παρόν δεν είναι επικίνδυνη. Στις 30 Δεκεμβρίου κατά τη διάρκεια καταιγίδας η εξέδρα άρχισε να πλέει ανεξέλεγκτα αφότου υπέστησαν βλάβη οι κινητήρες του πλοίου ρυμούλκησής της. Το πλήρωμα της εξέδρας Kulluk απομακρύνθηκε όταν προέκυψε κίνδυνος σύγκρουσης με ένα από τα νησιά.
An overnight Coast Guard flight over an Alaska drilling rig that ran aground in shallow water off a small island on New Year's Eve found no signs of a fuel spill. But officials at a unified command center run by the Coast Guard, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, state responders and others said they'll have to wait until daylight to know for sure what environmental impact the grounding might have caused.
The Kulluk grounded Monday night on rocks off the southeast side of Sitkalidak Island, an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Alaska.
The North Pacific storm that has caused problems for Shell's efforts to move the drill into place near Kodiak Island is expected to continue Tuesday, at a slightly milder intensity, said spokeswoman Darci Sinclair.
Voice of Russia, AP ruvr.ru 1/1/13 --- - Related post:
Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC's foray into Arctic offshore drilling has suffered a serious setback after one of its two Alaska drilling rigs ran aground in shallow water off a small island. Officials at a unified command center run by the Coast Guard, Shell, state responders and others said the Kulluk grounded Monday night on rocks off the southeast side of Sitkalidak Island, an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Alaska. The Kulluk was being towed by a 360-foot anchor handler, the Aiviq, and a tugboat, the Alert. The vessels were moving north along Kodiak Island, trying to escape the worst of a North Pacific storm that included winds near 70 mph and swells to 35 feet. Sitkalidak is on the southeast side of Kodiak Island. About 4:15 p.m., the drill ship separated from the Aiviq about 10 to 15 miles off shore and grounding was inevitable, Coast Guard Cmdr. Shane Montoya, the acting federal on-scene coordinator, told reporters. "Once the Aiviq lost its tow, we knew the Alert could not manage the Kulluk on its own as far as towing, and that's when we started planning for the grounding," he said. The command center instructed the nine tug crew members to guide the drill ship to a place where it would cause the least environmental damage. The tug cut the unmanned ship loose at 8:15 p.m. and it grounded at 9 p.m. near the north tip of Ocean Bay on Sitkalidak. "The Alert was not able to do anything as far as towing the Kulluk but tried to maintain some kind of control," Montoya said. The drill ship drafts 35 to 40 feet of water. The Coast Guard planned to fly out early Tuesday to plan a salvage operation and possible spill response. It is carrying 150,000 gallons of diesel and about 12,000 gallons of lube oil and hydraulic fluid, Montoya said. Susan Childs, Shell's on-scene coordinator, said it was too early to know how the vessel would react to the pounding of the storm when it was aground and stationary. She was optimistic about its salvage prospects and chances for staying intact. "The unique design of the Kulluk means the diesel fuel tanks are isolated in the center of the vessel and encased in very heavy steel," she said. "When the weather subsides and it is safe to do so, we will dispatch crews to the location and begin a complete assessment." The Kulluk is designed for extended drilling in Arctic waters and underwent $292 million in technical upgrades since 2006 to prepare for Alaska offshore exploration. The drill ship worked during the short 2012 open water season in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast. Its ice-reinforced, funnel-shape hull can deflect moving ice downward and break it into pieces. Attached to a drilling prospect, the Kulluk is designed to handle waves 18 feet high. When disconnected from a well, it's designed to handle seas to 40 feet. Garth Pulkkinen of Noble Corp., the operator of the drill ship, said it was never in danger of capsizing. The vessel first separated from a towing vessel Thursday night south of Kodiak Island. It was carrying a skeleton crew of 17 as it was towed by the Aiviq from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands to Seattle for maintenance. The tow line broke at a shackle attached to one of the vessels. "It was new. It was inspected before it left Dutch, but it broke," said Shell Alaska spokesman Curtis Smith. Before a line could be reattached, the Aiviq's engines failed, possibly from contaminated fuel. The Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley attempted to secure the drifting drill ship but that line failed and wrapped itself around one of the cutter's propellers, requiring the cutter to return to Kodiak on one propeller. With bad weather predicted, the Kulluk's crew was evacuated Saturday. They hooked up emergency tow lines and left them trailing behind the vessel in case they were needed. The Aiviq, with its engines restored, and a tug re-established lines to the drill ship, but lines broke Sunday. During a lull in the storm early Monday, the crew of Alert grabbed the original 400-foot line trailing the drill ship and later the Aiviq grappled aboard one of the emergency lines. .npr.org 1/1/13
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