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Tue 20 Jan 2009, 08:02 GMT

Bunker spill at the Port of Long Beach


Coast Guard says incident at eco-conscious port was a 'minor spill'.

A container ship calling at the eco-conscious Port of Long Beach spilled an undetermined amount of fuel oil into the harbour on Friday, according to local market sources.

The captain of the 485-foot Cap Tapaga reportedly noticed a fuel oil leak seeping near the vessel's water line at approximately 10 am and the Coast Guard was then notified.

Private crews were brought in to seal the leak and containment booms were set up to capture the dispersing fuel.

A team of investigators has been examining the scene of the incident in order to determine how much fuel oil leaked into the harbour, although Coast Guard Captain Paul Wiedenhoeft described it as being a "minor spill."

The fuel oil spill comes less than four months since Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a comprehensive package of legislation in September 2008, which aimed to improve marine oil spill prevention and response in California.

The action was in part a response to the oil spill in November 2007 of some 54,000 gallons of bunker fuel from the container ship Cosco Busan into the San Francisco Bay.

As part of the of the Administration's plan, the Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) changed its response time requirements to oil spills in high-traffic ports. Oil spill response organizations will now have to comply with these regulatory changes to speed up response in the San Francisco Bay and the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports and be able to demonstrate their ability to meet the new standard.

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