The EPA already has quite a web site on this incident, with some pretty
dramatic photos and very recent updates.

http://161.55.32.17:591/carissa/home.htm

Kevin Li
Seattle

> ----------
> From: BearlyBear at aol.com[SMTP:BearlyBear at aol.com]
> Reply To: BearlyBear at aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 1999 11:57 AM
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: tanker
>
> Forward from AOL News:
>
> Stuck Cargo Ship To Be Burned
>
> .c The Associated Press
>
> By JEFF BARNARD
>
> COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) -- Faced with an approaching storm that threatened to
> break up a stuck cargo ship, authorities decided today that setting the
> ship
> and its fuel on fire was the only way to save beaches from a spill of
> nearly
> 400,000 gallons of oil.
>
> The decision to burn the ship was made by a unified command of Coast
> Guard,
> state and federal authorities after it became clear that they could not
> remove
> the 639-foot New Carissa intact -- already leaking fuel that has fouled
> several miles of beaches -- before the a series of storms hit this
> afternoon.
>
> The ship, owned by a Japanese company, registered in Panama and staffed
> with a
> Filipino crew of 23, ran aground Thursday morning just 450 feet 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.
>
> The discovery that some of the ship's fuel tanks were leaking changed the
> Coast Guard's priority Monday from protecting the ship to protecting miles
> of
> environmentally sensitive beaches. The ship is aground in an area known as
> the
> Leberti Hole, considered a prime crab-fishing area.
>
> Authorities had been preparing to try to pull the ship free, which would
> have
> enabled it to be towed in and repaired, until the approaching storm
> changed
> their plans. Now, the ship will be a total loss.
>
> ``We are significantly concerned the ship will not stay together,'' Coast
> Guard Capt. Mike Hall said today. ``We're between a rock and a hard spot.
> If
> we don't do something now we would have to stand before you and tell you
> why
> we let 400,000 gallons of oil spill on our beaches.''
>
> Navy explosives experts flew in today and were preparing the ship for
> burning.
> Plans call for removing huge cargo hatches on the deck and using small
> shaped
> charges to crack open the fuel tanks, allowing the fuel to burn more
> freely.
> The fire will be ignited with 5-gallon buckets of gasoline and incendiary
> grenades that reach temperatures of 1,800 degrees.
>
> Authorities said this kind of burning of the heavy, tarlike bunker fuel
> would
> a controlled burn, not an explosion, and less risky to the environment
> than
> pumping the fuel off the ship. The burn could take a couple of days.
>
> ``The goal is to keep the fuel within the skin of the ship,'' Hall said.
> ``We
> think the storm will help us as it feeds the oxygen.''
>
> Already, three of the ship's five tanks, containing 140,000 gallons, have
> ruptured, streaking oil along six miles of beaches. Several birds have
> been
> found coated with fuel in the area, which is near the habitat of the
> Western
> snowy plover, a threatened species of shore bird.
>
> About 200 people have been mobilized to clean up the gooey residue.
> Workers in
> yellow slickers and orange hardhats used rakes, shovels and absorbent
> material
> known as pompoms to gather up the oil and put it in clear plastic bags for
> disposal. Front loaders gathered up oily driftwood.
>