Here is the 2nd installment on the spill.
Pat
BearlyBear at aol.com

Oil Spill Reaches Oregon Beaches

..c The Associated Press

By JEFF BARNARD

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) -- Battered by six days of pounding surf, cracks widened
in the steel hull of a grounded cargo ship Tuesday, pouring thousands of
gallons of oil and diesel fuel onto environmentally sensitive beaches.

Streaks of gooey, tar-like fuel oil streaked the southern Oregon coastline for
six miles around the 639-foot New Carissa. As many as 300 workers in yellow
slickers and hard hats were called in to mop up the mess with shovels,
squeegees and absorbent pompoms.

``I regret very much that we have a very serious incident on our hands,'' said
William Milwee, the salvage consultant representing the Japanese company that
owns the ship.

Gov. John Kitzhaber said he was considering declaring a state of emergency,
which would allow him to mobilize the National Guard to assist in the cleanup.

``We're skating on the edge here, hoping, praying, working hard to avoid a
disaster,'' said Rep. Peter DeFazio.

The Coast Guard said three of the ship's five fuel tanks were leaking and one,
containing heavy fuel oil, was ``seriously breached.'' It was not known how
much oil had leaked, but the three tanks hold 140,000 gallons of oil and
diesel.

Several oil-covered birds have been found, and special crews were standing by
in case the slick threatens the habitat of Western snowy plovers, a threatened
bird.

The ship, staffed with a crew of 23, grounded Thursday about 150 yards
offshore as it waited to come into port to pick up a load of wood chips. Its
crew was removed by the Coast Guard on Friday.

Oil fumes mixed with salt air Tuesday as workers packed oil-soaked sand into
clear plastic bags, and front-end loaders piled up blackened driftwood.

The thick oil penetrated less than an inch of the sand surface and pooled into
depressions. Hundreds of bags of oil-soaked sand had been collected by Tuesday
afternoon, but long stretches of beach still remained to be cleaned.

``It's nasty, dirty hard work,'' Milwee said, adding that the lighter elements
of the fuel oil have evaporated, leaving behind only a gooey, gelatinous muck.

The Coast Guard and salvage teams were going over their options on how best to
remove the New Carissa. The 200-foot tug Salvage Chief, a veteran of the 1989
Exxon Valdez recovery, arrived Monday night.

Meanwhile, the panel overseeing restoration of Alaska's Prince William Sound,
where the Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil, said Tuesday that only two
of the nearly two dozen species hurt are fully recovered.