SANDY: 300,000+ Gallon Oil Spill Staten Island

Super storm Sandy causes spill at Saudi-backed plant

Motiva Enterprises, a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco, said at least two diesel storage tanks were damaged in the wake of super storm Sandy at its Sewaren, New Jersey facility, leaking oil into the Arthur Kill waterway that separates New Jersey from Staten Island.

Motiva said previously deployed booms are skimming the fuel in the Woodbridge creek adjacent to where the spill occurred. The US Coast Guard said at the weekend around 130 people were taking part in a clean-up effort to clear the spilled oil.

"The exact volume of diesel oil released from the tanks will be determined when crews are able to gain safe access to the tanks," the Coast Guard told the Wall Street Journal.

So they don't even have access to the tanks yet?

MORE:

Coast Guard chief: NY, NJ water cleanup monumental

The commander of the Coast Guard for the Atlantic area said Friday that it's a "monumental task" to clean up hundreds of thousands of gallons of spilled fuel and other pollutants left by Superstorm Sandy in the waters off New York and New Jersey.

"The work is just beginning," Rear Adm. Daniel Abel said during a helicopter flyover of the devastation, from the Hudson River in Manhattan past the Statue of Liberty to Staten Island.

The Coast Guard helicopter had an open side that offered a clear view of huge oily slicks in Staten Island's Arthur Kill, a major navigational channel for the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Spills came from facilities that experienced what Abel called "catastrophic failure of tanks."

The article continues:

It's crucial to fully reactivate Arthur Kill, he said, because of its economic impact of more than $130 million a day, but "it's going to take a long time to get it back."

If that is true, we have roughly a billion dollar loss as of today for this single item alone.

Are you convinced yet most people don't understand what this storm really has done to the nation?

With so many flyovers, I am surprised they just now noticed it.
If it just started leaking then, hmmm. Hard to say for sure that Sandy IS to blame, just that it WILL be blamed.

And how can anybody tell doing a flyover at night.
Me, I can't tell a darn thing in a dark video looking for black oil.

Oh well.

reply to post by PaperbackWriter


They've know about this for several days now....It just hasn't been widely reported.

For example, it was mentioned in this thread: Hurricane #Sandy - Live coverage by ATS members

reply to post by loam


Good Lord! What is this still doing in the news as a problem ongoing?! This is the same spill that was first reported on the morning following landfall, right? They had booms and tugs out trying to contain at the outer limits of the spill at that time. I'd have thought...in the list of things needing done before all else...this would be in the top 3?? It seems to me, if the area is polluted beyond living standards, then helping those there to live better is kinda moot.

I'm just shocked we're this far along and this isn't a story of mop-up and finish work on the clean up, not mere containment and assessment efforts. If this isn't in the top 3 for importance, what is!?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


From the posted article:

Abel, who commands 11,000 members of the Coast Guard in his 1st Coast Guard District, said "it's going to be a monumental task, and we're only in the initial stages."

Looks like they haven't gotten very far.

Originally posted by loam
reply to post by PaperbackWriter

 

They've know about this for several days now....It just hasn't been widely reported.

For example, it was mentioned in this thread: Hurricane #Sandy - Live coverage by ATS members

edit on 4-11-2012 by loam because: (no reason given)

Then if it was known since the 31st, how come the only news footage is of flyover at night?
Any daytime footage that was taken since then?
Thanks.

reply to post by loam

Are you convinced yet most people don't understand what this storm really has done to the nation?

I'm convinced but most people rely on hindsight to see what's was once in front of them. Us that aren't directly affected have yet to see what will stem from this disaster.
It doesn't help we are in an election year which takes news precedence.

reply to post by PaperbackWriter

Originally posted by PaperbackWriter
Then if it was known since the 31st, how come the only news footage is of flyover at night?
Any daytime footage that was taken since then?
Thanks.

Exactly.

The media coverage of this storm is the worst I've seen yet... Even BP and Katrina had better information flow, despite the attempts of the media and government to spike the most important information for whatever reasons.

It's the same crap they tried to pull after BP in the gulf. I was on the shore during and after that, and it still hasn't been cleaned up. I left when they tried to cover the stuff up at night, burning it and covering it up, and the stench of burning oil made me leave the Gulf, forever........

The oil from BP came up in huge amounts again after Isaac, after they tried to sink it with corexit.

This is bad...........really, really bad.

What the Sandy story needs is for some intrepid reporters to hire those tourist helicopters and do some daytime flyovers all over the whole area.

I don't trust the MSM or the government of competing fiefdoms in order to have the foggiest clue what the real situation is.

For instance, I have not heard Harlem or Upper Manhattan above Midtown even mentioned once.

Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Rockaways, here and there reported as either a total loss or only
nonsensical pockets of destruction.

I wanna know where all the people are?

Like where are all the people?

Originally posted by magma
I wanna know where all the people are?

Like where are all the people?

That's what I have been asking.
How do you empty dozens and dozens of towns of all their people yet don't know where they went?
Where are the school kids supposed to show up Monday morning?
Are they living in shelters?
Are there announcements of school closings and where those kids are supposed to go instead?

The only shelters I've read about are warming shelters where you just show up for awhile and then are
expected to leave.

Where are all the cars left where they ran out of gas along the roadways?
Is there masses of people out walking everywhere or are buses working and if so, where are they getting
their gas?

There are just a lot of questions and no answers about this sketchily reported event.

Wanna hear somthing funny? A few days ago, on the local news ticker, it said "lower gas prices are due to sandy"

Wtf? I thought hurricanes and destruction made gas go up

Im in texas if that matters.

reply to post by loam

Onsite:

Four diesel oil storage tanks were damaged at the Sewaren terminal, two of which are believed to have released some of their contents. The exact volume of diesel oil released from the tanks will be developed when crews are able to gain safe access to the tanks. Preliminary estimate of the diesel released offsite is 6,600 Bbls.

Initial response actions were successful to stop the flow of diesel from the secondary containment area into Woodbridge Creek. Product and water is being recovered by vacuum trucks from the secondary containment area and pumped into a separate onsite storage tank

Offsite:

Assessments of the surrounding waterways, creeks and community have been conducted. Oil spill containment booms have been deployed to contain pockets of diesel oil and to protect sensitive areas.

Response crews are actively recovering contained diesel oil by use of skimmers and vacuum trucks. Approx 130 responders are taking part in the cleanup effort.

Motiva has been coordinating their response activities with the USCG; the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and with Middlesex County Officials.

www.motivaenterprises.com...

So FOUR tanks were damaged, but they believe the release was from two.

Originally posted by PaperbackWriter

Originally posted by magma
I wanna know where all the people are?

Like where are all the people?

That's what I have been asking.
How do you empty dozens and dozens of towns of all their people yet don't know where they went?
Where are the school kids supposed to show up Monday morning?
Are they living in shelters?
Are there announcements of school closings and where those kids are supposed to go instead?

The only shelters I've read about are warming shelters where you just show up for awhile and then are
expected to leave.

Where are all the cars left where they ran out of gas along the roadways?
Is there masses of people out walking everywhere or are buses working and if so, where are they getting
their gas?

There are just a lot of questions and no answers about this sketchily reported event.

I agree with you about being in the dark about this oil spill, since I'm from N.J. and I've read plenty of newspaper articles and accessed alot of information, and this is the first I've heard about it! However, here is a link to what my state is doing...www.nj.com...

Here's address:

SEWAREN

111 State Street
Sewaren, NJ 07077
732-855-3200

Originally posted by magma
I wanna know where all the people are?

Like where are all the people?

They are all there...in this hotel:

abcnews.go.com... r-nyc-marathon-runners-rooms/story?id=17630773

or complaining........now people might take offense to this, but I survived the aftermath of Katrina for 3 weeks without power..........I personally think a lot of them are complete, whiners...........yes, I do. And I lived about 60 miles inland from Katrina. I lost everything.

www.huffingtonpost.com... icane-sandy_n_2070682.html

TextAt an evacuation shelter at a local high school, the staff was made up of a janitor, a few teenagers and a school administrator. "There was no plan," he said. So he began giving people jobs and blasting out help requests on Facebook. "The community was unprepared, and so were the state and the federal government," he said. "Nobody knows what to do and how to do it efficiently."

At an evacuation shelter at a local high school, the staff was made up of a janitor, a few teenagers and a school administrator. "There was no plan," he said. So he began giving people jobs and blasting out help requests on Facebook. "The community was unprepared, and so were the state and the federal government," he said. "Nobody knows what to do and how to do it efficiently."

Idiots.

hmmm the original reports were far more released.

www.nbcnewyork.com...

That's 8000 bbl, not 6600 bbl.

reply to post by Valhall




I'm assuming they are located in the section nearest the river.

The Coast Guard states they are in the initial stages of cleanup. So what does that mean when the
Nor'easter hits the area on or about Wednesday??
This could end up being a huge mess.