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As clean-up crews in hazmat suits scour the beaches, scientists say they'll be dealing with the aftermath of last week's oil spill for months, maybe even years. Why is it so hard to clean up oil? And what will happen to the thousands of gallons of spilled oil that can't be recovered?
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Piece Description
As clean-up crews in hazmat suits scour the beaches, scientists say they'll be dealing with the aftermath of last week's oil spill for months, maybe even years. Why is it so hard to clean up oil? And what will happen to the thousands of gallons of spilled oil that can't be recovered?
Broadcast History
11/16 aired twice locally during Morning Edition C segment; California Report
(shorter version sched. air 11/17 on WESAT)
Transcript
In the days after the oil spill, hundreds of volunteers like Paul Irving signed up for hazmat training courses and flocked to the beaches to help clean up.
AMBI: BEACH/Ocean
IRVING So I?m just pacing back and forth looking for small bits of tar to pick up like this one right here, shining in the sun..
And out on the Bay itself, a growing fleet of skimmer boats dragged long plastic booms across the water.
NEFF Yeah they?re just ahead of us, off the starboard side here?
Coast Guard Petty Officer Kevin Neff was on a sport fishing boat off Angel Island, just 30 hours after the spill.
AMBI: Can we layer ?BOAT MOTOR? ambi under next cut?
NEFF Well they deploy the boom out and it floats on the surface of the water to prevent the fuel from going past it, then they can go inside [CAN YOU CLEAN UP A BIT?] the area to mop it up, so to say.
As c...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
suggested host intro: It's been ten days since an Asian freighter hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge....and spilled 58-thousand gallons of heavy bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay.
After an intensive clean-up effort, crews have recovered less than a third of the oil.
And that may be all they get.
From San Francisco, reporter Amy Standen from member station KQED has more.
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