Marine Pollution Bulletin
The five regions for pollution response purposes are: North East (Maine to North Carolina), South East (South Carolina to F...
The five regions for pollution response purposes are: North East (Maine to North Carolina), South East (South Carolina to Florida), Gulf (Alabama, Texas, Missouri and Louisiana), South West (California), and North West (Oregon and Washington). MSRC does not intend to compete with other existing response organizations, and would not substitute for the spiller's obligation to manage spills under Coast Guard direction.
identifying projects for monitoring water resources and collection and disposal of hazardous wastes. The Danish government has already approved 100 m DKR to improve the Eastern European environmental situation. This contribution may be more than doubled in the future. The Danes are particularly concerned with the state of the Baltic Sea which is generally considered to be one of the most polluted areas in Europe.
Norway
Radiation Threat from Submarine Wreck A Soviet submarine which sank off the Norwegian Coast in 1989 is in danger of leaking radiation into the sea, according to some Soviet experts. The submarine, a 5000 t nuclear powered vessel sank after catching fire and nose dived into the seabed damaging a compartment housing two torpedoes armed with nuclear warheads. The worry is that, unlike the nuclear reactor which was built to withstand extremes, the torpedoes are lightly constructed and are not intended to withstand prolonged immersion in the sea. The submarine went down 100 miles west-southwest of Bear Island and is presently lying in a depth of 700 m on a seabed of silt. Soviet scientists say that a research team using a manned submersible confirmed that, to date, there had been no radiation leakage and that the wreck posed no danger for salvage operations. However, they believe that in two years the torpedoes could have corroded to the extent that there was a high risk of leakage of radioactive liquid. The Soviets have plans to salvage the vessel in the near future.
Round-the-World News Denmark The Danish and Estonian governments signed a cooperation agreement in September on environmental matters. The agreement sets up a working group for
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Saga Petroleum have had a blowout in an oil well in Norwegian block 2/4. This follows a disastrous blowout on their first exploration well in the same block which took a year to control. The blowout lasted ten minutes before the blowout preventer could be activated cutting the drill string with hydraulically operated sheer rams. There are no reports of significant oil pollution.
Singapore Singapore is to start upgrading its stockpile of oil spill fighting equipment before the end of the year. The aim is to put the Singapore base on a comparable level to the Oil Spill Service Centre at Southampton, an oil industry co-operative which supplied large amounts of equipment to the Gulf War slick. The Singapore facility, known as the Tiered Area Response Capability (TARC) is also an oil industry cooperative whose original aim was support of oil and gas exploration and development in Southeast Asia. It already possesses air-transportable equipment in case of pollution incidents in Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia.
Israel Heavy fuel oil spilled into Haifa Bay, Israel when a flexible pipeline leaked whilst an oil cargo was being transferred between a tanker to an oil facility. About 350 t of oil was spilled impacting 7 km of coastline, including beaches in northern Israel. It is estimated that about 50% of the oil ended up on the shore, the rest being either evaporated or dispersed.