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Yemen
Marine Pollution Bulletin
within a specified area, but would also require additional information for the discharge permits, increased sediment monitoring in the discharge area and management of the sediment impact zone; and Sediment Cleanup--the regulation establishes a decision-making process to identify and rank contaminated sediment sites for cleanup actions. It also establishes sediment cleanup standards for actions conducted under related legislation. Further information on these sediment management standards is available from Washington State Department of Ecology, Mail Stop PV-11, Olympia, Washington, US 98504-8711 (contact for copies of document: Barb Patrick, Tel: (206) 459-6013). A N D R E W GILLA M
$1 billion Exxon Settlement Collapse Exxon Corporation announced on 2 May 1991 they were withdrawing from the pending settlement provisionally agreed on 13th March with the State of Alaska and the US Government (see Mar. Pollut. Bull. 22, 167). The settlement looked shaky for some time and was dealt a hammer blow when US District Judge Russell Holland rejected Exxon's criminal plea bargain on 24 April. The company had agreed to pay S100 million and would plead guilty to violating three separate acts; the" US Clean Water Act, Refuse Code and Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It had also agreed to pay $900 million in civil damages during the next 10 years. Judge Holland rejected the S100 million criminal fine on the grounds that it was not adequate considering the magnitude of the spill. He stated several factors influencing his decision, including "the nature and circumstances of the offence; the history and characteristics of the defendant; the seriousness of the offence and whether the penalties to be imposed adequately deter others from similar conduct.. '.' continuing to say, "in short, I am to consider the size of the defendant organization". The agreement was finally doomed on 2 May when the Alaska House of Representatives voted 23 to 17 to reject the proposed $1 billion settlement despite strong support for the agreement from Alaska's Governor, Walter Hickel and Attorney-General, Charles Cole. Hickel is reported to be very disappointed with the House's decision and predicted that the citizens of Alaska will be outraged at the loss of money that would have been used to reimburse Alaska for its expenses during the spill and the loss of additional funds that would have been available to restore damaged natural resources. The President of the Alaska Senate, Dick Eliason, is also reported as regretting the lost opportunity to receive a substantial monetary settlement while avoiding a protracted legal battle. Apparently, Alaska will now have to allocate some $20 million to conduct the case against Exxon and an additional $500 000 per month to continue economic damage assessment studies in support of the case. 320
New Oil Spill Laws for Texas Following in the wake of two major oil spill incidents last year, Texas administrators have passed strict new oil spill legislation. The Norwegian tanker Mega Borg exploded and caught fire 90 km east of Galveston last June spilling 4.6 million gallons of crude oil into the sea. A few weeks later a Greek tanker collided with three barges under tow in Galveston Bay when just over half a million gallons of heavy oil leaked out. In both cases the response to the spills had been inadequate as the State authorities were accused of being unprepared to deal with such emergencies. The new legislation, the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act, is to have equipment, personnel and training in place in readiness for any future emergencies. The Act will establish five regional response centres along the Texas coastline together with spill fighting equipment and staff to audit the contingency plans of private companies.
Prince William Sound Threatens Aleutian Shores Unalaska Island, one of the chain of Aleutian Islands bordering the Bering Sea, was threatened with oil pollution when a fish processing vessel caught fire in Dutch Harbour on 22 April. The vessel, Prince William Sound, transports fish from fishing grounds to coastal processing plants and was carrying 135 000 gallons of diesel fuel when the incident occurred. The fire started when sparks from a welding torch ignited some fibre packing. The fire quickly got out of control and the vessel was towed 24 km out to sea, when still burning it began to drift shorewards. Although the fuel tanks remained intact, there was some spillage of diesel, forming a sheen behind the vessel. The vessel's owners, Trident Seafoods are contracted with Martech Industries to have oil-spill cleanup equipment ready should the situatiQn worsen. Meanwhile, bad weather prevented the use of an absorbent boom to collect the sheen oil. Latest reports indicate that the Prince William Sound has been towed back to Unalaska Island and will be moored in a bay with 'low ecological sensitivity'. It is planned to then offload the remaining fuel oil.
Round-the-World News USSR Two Taiwanese fishing vessels were detained by Soviet authorities in May after they had been spotted and reported by US Coast Guard North Pacific air surveillance. The vessels, both drift net squid ships, were caught allegedly fishing for Soviet and possibly American salmon and were arrested by Soviet border guard vessels.
Yemen The Bahamas-flag tanker Mendana Spirit was released
V o l u m e 2 2 / N u m b e r 7/July 1991
from 12 weeks detention in Aden recently. The ship had been detained after being involved in a collision in February with the Turkish bulk carrier C Eregli. Mendana Spirit was only slightly damaged whilst the bulk carrier sank spilling fuel oil into the sea. Yemenese authorities made demands for up to $60 million damages against the owners of the Mendana Spirit for alleged pollution, although no actual pollution damage was ever proved. The Directorates Court in Aden released the vessel against an $8.5 million guarantee for wreck removal and a $5 million guarantee for pollution.
England Four road tank trailers, each carrying 24 t of ethyl acrylate were lost overboard from the Ro-Ro ferry Nordic Pride in May when the vessel struck heavy seas. Two of the tanks were later washed up on the Norfolk coast near the villages of Weybourne, Kelly and Salthouse. Forty villagers were admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of fumes and skin irritation. People living within a 16 km radius were advised to keep windows and doors shut whilst clean-up teams dealt with the chemical.
Panama Quick action by the US Coast Guard Marine Advisory Office prevented a spillage of nearly 60 000 gallons of gas oil from entering the Panama Canal. The oil came
Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume22, No. 7, pp. 321-322, 1991. Printed in Great Britain.
Ship to Air Pollution The Route to a New MARPOL Annex From 1-5 July 1991, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization 0MO) will again consider the issue of ship to air pollution. Its focus will be the development of a new Annex to the International Convention.
March 1990, 29th session of the M E P C Norway was and is a major factor in the discussions with respect to ship to air pollution within the IMO. In March 1990, at the 29th session of the MEPC, Norway submitted a document in which quantitative data were given with respect to the contribution to air pollution by ships in international trade (see Mar. Pollut. Bull. 21, 217). Norway also called for a discussion about proposals to regulate air pollution from ships. At the time, whilst the meeting agreed that the issue should be discussed, the meeting could not agree on the type of
from the tanker Elbe when she struck the Gatun Locks and opened a 3 m tear in her side. Most of the oil spilled evaporated with less than 9000 of the 60 000 gallons being washed into the locks. Further loss of oil was checked by transferring oil from the spilling tank to another undamaged tank on board the vessel.
Antarctica The text of a new Environmental Protocol was agreed at the Antarctic Treaty meeting in April at Madrid. The protocol may replace the proposed Antarctic Minerals Convention (see Mar. Pollut. Bull. 22, 6) and includes a 50-year moratorium on mining and exploration. It also sets out tough laws on marine pollution, conservation of wildlife, waste disposal, environmental impact assessment and scientific data sharing. Further laws on tourism are likely. The Antarctic Treaty nations reconvene in June when it is hoped the new protocol will be signed by the 26 voting members.
France The shipment of several containers of German nuclear waste from Dunkirk to Sellafield was prevented when 30-40 Greenpeace activists chained themselves to the containers. The ferry Nord Pas de Calais is not adapted to carry nuclear waste and Greenpeace claim that Dunkirk is the only European port which accepts such shipments despite a union boycott of them. Greenpeace insist that the waste should be sent back to Germany.
0025-326X/91 S3.00+0.00 © 1991 Pergamon Press plc
measures that should be taken. One option was the adoption of a resolution giving general guidelines with respect to the reduction of air pollution from ships. Another option, advocated by the environmental organization Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), was the development of a new Annex to the MARPOL Convention. The general feeling at the 29th session of the MEPC was that, while a new Annex might well be what was required on the long-term, it would be premature to decide what for any new initiative should take. It was decided that the first step would be to prepare recommendations in a form that could easily be transformed into regulations.
November 1990, 30th session of the MEPC The issue returned to the agenda of the 30th session of the MEPC in November 1990. Fifteen documents were submitted to that meeting addressing various aspects of ship to air pollution. Among these, again, documents by Norway (a proposal to accelerate the 321
within a specified area, but would also require additional information for the discharge permits, increased sediment monitoring in the discharge area and management of the sediment impact zone; and Sediment Cleanup--the regulation establishes a decision-making process to identify and rank contaminated sediment sites for cleanup actions. It also establishes sediment cleanup standards for actions conducted under related legislation. Further information on these sediment management standards is available from Washington State Department of Ecology, Mail Stop PV-11, Olympia, Washington, US 98504-8711 (contact for copies of document: Barb Patrick, Tel: (206) 459-6013). A N D R E W GILLA M
$1 billion Exxon Settlement Collapse Exxon Corporation announced on 2 May 1991 they were withdrawing from the pending settlement provisionally agreed on 13th March with the State of Alaska and the US Government (see Mar. Pollut. Bull. 22, 167). The settlement looked shaky for some time and was dealt a hammer blow when US District Judge Russell Holland rejected Exxon's criminal plea bargain on 24 April. The company had agreed to pay S100 million and would plead guilty to violating three separate acts; the" US Clean Water Act, Refuse Code and Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It had also agreed to pay $900 million in civil damages during the next 10 years. Judge Holland rejected the S100 million criminal fine on the grounds that it was not adequate considering the magnitude of the spill. He stated several factors influencing his decision, including "the nature and circumstances of the offence; the history and characteristics of the defendant; the seriousness of the offence and whether the penalties to be imposed adequately deter others from similar conduct.. '.' continuing to say, "in short, I am to consider the size of the defendant organization". The agreement was finally doomed on 2 May when the Alaska House of Representatives voted 23 to 17 to reject the proposed $1 billion settlement despite strong support for the agreement from Alaska's Governor, Walter Hickel and Attorney-General, Charles Cole. Hickel is reported to be very disappointed with the House's decision and predicted that the citizens of Alaska will be outraged at the loss of money that would have been used to reimburse Alaska for its expenses during the spill and the loss of additional funds that would have been available to restore damaged natural resources. The President of the Alaska Senate, Dick Eliason, is also reported as regretting the lost opportunity to receive a substantial monetary settlement while avoiding a protracted legal battle. Apparently, Alaska will now have to allocate some $20 million to conduct the case against Exxon and an additional $500 000 per month to continue economic damage assessment studies in support of the case. 320
New Oil Spill Laws for Texas Following in the wake of two major oil spill incidents last year, Texas administrators have passed strict new oil spill legislation. The Norwegian tanker Mega Borg exploded and caught fire 90 km east of Galveston last June spilling 4.6 million gallons of crude oil into the sea. A few weeks later a Greek tanker collided with three barges under tow in Galveston Bay when just over half a million gallons of heavy oil leaked out. In both cases the response to the spills had been inadequate as the State authorities were accused of being unprepared to deal with such emergencies. The new legislation, the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act, is to have equipment, personnel and training in place in readiness for any future emergencies. The Act will establish five regional response centres along the Texas coastline together with spill fighting equipment and staff to audit the contingency plans of private companies.
Prince William Sound Threatens Aleutian Shores Unalaska Island, one of the chain of Aleutian Islands bordering the Bering Sea, was threatened with oil pollution when a fish processing vessel caught fire in Dutch Harbour on 22 April. The vessel, Prince William Sound, transports fish from fishing grounds to coastal processing plants and was carrying 135 000 gallons of diesel fuel when the incident occurred. The fire started when sparks from a welding torch ignited some fibre packing. The fire quickly got out of control and the vessel was towed 24 km out to sea, when still burning it began to drift shorewards. Although the fuel tanks remained intact, there was some spillage of diesel, forming a sheen behind the vessel. The vessel's owners, Trident Seafoods are contracted with Martech Industries to have oil-spill cleanup equipment ready should the situatiQn worsen. Meanwhile, bad weather prevented the use of an absorbent boom to collect the sheen oil. Latest reports indicate that the Prince William Sound has been towed back to Unalaska Island and will be moored in a bay with 'low ecological sensitivity'. It is planned to then offload the remaining fuel oil.
Round-the-World News USSR Two Taiwanese fishing vessels were detained by Soviet authorities in May after they had been spotted and reported by US Coast Guard North Pacific air surveillance. The vessels, both drift net squid ships, were caught allegedly fishing for Soviet and possibly American salmon and were arrested by Soviet border guard vessels.
Yemen The Bahamas-flag tanker Mendana Spirit was released
V o l u m e 2 2 / N u m b e r 7/July 1991
from 12 weeks detention in Aden recently. The ship had been detained after being involved in a collision in February with the Turkish bulk carrier C Eregli. Mendana Spirit was only slightly damaged whilst the bulk carrier sank spilling fuel oil into the sea. Yemenese authorities made demands for up to $60 million damages against the owners of the Mendana Spirit for alleged pollution, although no actual pollution damage was ever proved. The Directorates Court in Aden released the vessel against an $8.5 million guarantee for wreck removal and a $5 million guarantee for pollution.
England Four road tank trailers, each carrying 24 t of ethyl acrylate were lost overboard from the Ro-Ro ferry Nordic Pride in May when the vessel struck heavy seas. Two of the tanks were later washed up on the Norfolk coast near the villages of Weybourne, Kelly and Salthouse. Forty villagers were admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of fumes and skin irritation. People living within a 16 km radius were advised to keep windows and doors shut whilst clean-up teams dealt with the chemical.
Panama Quick action by the US Coast Guard Marine Advisory Office prevented a spillage of nearly 60 000 gallons of gas oil from entering the Panama Canal. The oil came
Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume22, No. 7, pp. 321-322, 1991. Printed in Great Britain.
Ship to Air Pollution The Route to a New MARPOL Annex From 1-5 July 1991, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization 0MO) will again consider the issue of ship to air pollution. Its focus will be the development of a new Annex to the International Convention.
March 1990, 29th session of the M E P C Norway was and is a major factor in the discussions with respect to ship to air pollution within the IMO. In March 1990, at the 29th session of the MEPC, Norway submitted a document in which quantitative data were given with respect to the contribution to air pollution by ships in international trade (see Mar. Pollut. Bull. 21, 217). Norway also called for a discussion about proposals to regulate air pollution from ships. At the time, whilst the meeting agreed that the issue should be discussed, the meeting could not agree on the type of
from the tanker Elbe when she struck the Gatun Locks and opened a 3 m tear in her side. Most of the oil spilled evaporated with less than 9000 of the 60 000 gallons being washed into the locks. Further loss of oil was checked by transferring oil from the spilling tank to another undamaged tank on board the vessel.
Antarctica The text of a new Environmental Protocol was agreed at the Antarctic Treaty meeting in April at Madrid. The protocol may replace the proposed Antarctic Minerals Convention (see Mar. Pollut. Bull. 22, 6) and includes a 50-year moratorium on mining and exploration. It also sets out tough laws on marine pollution, conservation of wildlife, waste disposal, environmental impact assessment and scientific data sharing. Further laws on tourism are likely. The Antarctic Treaty nations reconvene in June when it is hoped the new protocol will be signed by the 26 voting members.
France The shipment of several containers of German nuclear waste from Dunkirk to Sellafield was prevented when 30-40 Greenpeace activists chained themselves to the containers. The ferry Nord Pas de Calais is not adapted to carry nuclear waste and Greenpeace claim that Dunkirk is the only European port which accepts such shipments despite a union boycott of them. Greenpeace insist that the waste should be sent back to Germany.
0025-326X/91 S3.00+0.00 © 1991 Pergamon Press plc
measures that should be taken. One option was the adoption of a resolution giving general guidelines with respect to the reduction of air pollution from ships. Another option, advocated by the environmental organization Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), was the development of a new Annex to the MARPOL Convention. The general feeling at the 29th session of the MEPC was that, while a new Annex might well be what was required on the long-term, it would be premature to decide what for any new initiative should take. It was decided that the first step would be to prepare recommendations in a form that could easily be transformed into regulations.
November 1990, 30th session of the MEPC The issue returned to the agenda of the 30th session of the MEPC in November 1990. Fifteen documents were submitted to that meeting addressing various aspects of ship to air pollution. Among these, again, documents by Norway (a proposal to accelerate the 321