How safe are San Francisco Bay beaches and water a year after the Cosco Busan oil spill?
A “dirty bathtub ring” and a some oil under a few rocks are about all that remain from the Cosco Busan oil spill more than a year ago in the San Francisco Bay. The spill of nearly 54,000 gallons of heavy fuel when the container ship hit the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge on the foggy morning of Nov. 7, 2007, was the largest spill in the bay in 20 years. It killed nearly 3,000 birds, fouled 69 miles of beaches and spurred hundreds of volunteers to help with the cleanup around the bay. Cleanup and compensation costs are estimated at $90 million. While officials can’t guarantee that another another such accident won’t happen again, they say that many measures have been taken to try to prevent it. “The vessel would have never left the dock” if new marine safety rules that have since been adopted were in place, said Coast Guard Capt. Paul Gugg, who oversees the San Francisco area. New rules ban large ships leaving port or sailing near bridges in less than a half-mile of visibility. In the
