OBERON oil spill cleanup operation to finish within the week

On the 18th February the Thai registered OBERON ran aground near the outlying island of Penghu spilling a large amount of crude oil. The oil spill mainly affected the coastal areas of Houliao in Baisha Township and the nearby areas of Xiaomen and Hejie in Xiyu Township. Day after day, workers battled to clean up the oil from the beach and by 22nd February 89 tons of polluted material had been amassed. The emergency cleanup groups have met daily in order to clearly understand the situation and implement the swiftest method to clean the oil as well as handle the legal claim against the shipping company. “The spill situation is under control.

We have the Dept. of Environmental Protection using excavators to clean up badly affected sand, and a large team is using oil-absorbent cloths to clean the oil from rocks. We have 75 coastguard officers on the ground at Hejie and a further 220 at Xiaomen”, said Guo Yi-cheng, from the 72 Battalion Coastguard in charge of the emergency cleanup operation. To date, over 1000 people have already worked in the cleanup operation and the County Government Environmental Protection Dept., in accordance with marine shipping laws, has fined the shipping company 1.5 million NT dollars. A compensation claim will be lodged with the company once the final cost in losses and injury are calculated.

PeoPo 公民新聞

OBERON oil spill cleanup operation to finish within the week

URL:

http://www.peopo.org/portal.php?op=viewPost&articleId=98549

(以下為中文對照)

歐倍隆貨輪油污外洩處理控制中 預計本週處理完畢 ( 澎湖代 )  

2月18日擱淺於澎湖縣吉貝嶼外海的泰國籍貨輪(OBERON)歐倍隆，船上重油全數洩出，導致澎湖縣白沙鄉後寮、西嶼鄉合界、小門沿海出現大量油汙，連 日來，相關單位不斷的進行油汙清理工作，至2月22日為止，岸邊已經清除89噸的油污。緊急應變小組更是每天開會了解處理情形，以最快速度清除油污，並向 船公司求償。負責合界海域清理的海巡岸巡七二大隊勤指主任郭益誠表示，目前油汙情形已經控制住，沙灘部份有環保局請挖土機協助清除，而岩石的部份則需人工 用吸油棉一塊塊的擦，所以合界部分有75位海巡官兵、小門部份有後指部協調澎防部調用220位官兵一同來清理。累計下來，已動用近千人次來清理沿岸油污， 而縣政府環保局也已依海污法開罰船公司一百五十萬元，未來清除完畢後將統計人力、物力及經濟損失，具體向船公司進行求償。

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