Ports and Infrastructure

Lessons Learned from the Cosco Buson
Oil Spill

By Alison Bate

It was over a year ago, November 2007, when 58,000 gallons of bunker oil spilled into the San Francisco Bay. The spill was the result of a 900-foot containership colliding with a support tower on the Bay Bridge in heavy fog.

We look back on the event and the response efforts, to see what can be learned.

Get Your Facts Right

Cdr. Scott Schaefer, deputy chief of incident management for the U.S. Coast Guard’s District Eleven, says that 22,972 gallons of bunker oil were recovered from San Francisco Bay after the collision.

“We had a response rate of 43 percent, which is pretty amazing,” he says.

However, public trust was lost because the first press release stated incorrectly that only 140 gallons were spilled, instead of the 58,000 gallons that ended up in the Bay.
Another error occurred when officials said that all the crew had received drug testing after the incident, whereas in fact, at the time, only one had been tested.

Make sure you get the facts right and quote the source if you are relying on someone else’s information, Schaefer advised delegates attending the 2008 Pacific States/B.C. Oil Spill Task Force in Victoria, BC.

Improve Communication & Address Role of Volunteers

Some things were done right, Schaefer said. The initial response was good, the U.S. Coast Guard, state officials, and the Harbor Safety Committee worked well together, and information was given to Senate members and other interested officials.
Looking ahead, Schaefer suggested that local government needs stronger two-way communication; the Unified Command needs to expand and take a stronger role; multi-agency committees should be brought back, and the role of volunteers should be addressed.

Hundreds of clean-up volunteers were furious after they were turned away because of agency concerns about potential liability if they handled hazardous waste.
Steve Sawyer, assistant chief counsel with California’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), noted: “The response went wonderfully, but we definitely did flunk perception. We took a terrible hit.”

  Another difficult area involved liaising with seven counties and the numerous cities affected by the spill. “Communication is the key,” he said.

Steve Edinger, OSPR’s acting administrator, said it was an outstanding spill response that has had serious political repercussions. “We are definitely in reaction mode.”

Improve Response & Implementation

Gerald Graham, president of Victoria-based World Ocean Consulting, disagreed with their assessments. “I think it was a really significant failure of California’s response and showed gaping holes in implementation and in the contingency plan itself.”
For example, he notes that in Marin County, response teams failed three times to deploy booms correctly to prevent oil from entering a lagoon.

The spill killed at least 1,800 birds, oiled another 1,000, and triggered $68 million in clean-up costs. A battery of response bills were filed afterward in the California state legislature.

In late September, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed seven of the bills but vetoed more far-reaching bills. The measures passed will create a comprehensive Inland Oil Spill Prevention Program, improve training for emergency responders, expand response planning in environmentally sensitive areas, check that drills are adequate, and increase pilot oversight and accountability.

However, Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill requiring response organizations to respond to spills in San Francisco Bay within two hours instead of six hours. He also refused to sign a bill to increase fees charged to oil companies bringing oil into the state from five cents to eight cents per barrel, and a third bill involving new technology.

Fallout Continues

In many ways, the spill isn’t over. Still on the horizon:

• The trial of pilot Capt. John Cota and Fleet Management, the ship management company involved, has been postponed until April 2009.

•  A key review by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is due in January.

•  Federal legislation has also been introduced to make ships safer and assess and improve vessel-tracking procedures.