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Author Topic:   Oil Spill Threatens Lebanon Coast
DayDreamer
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posted August 16, 2006 04:54 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Oil Spill Threatens Lebanon Coast
Haro Chakmakjian, AFP

July 27, 2006 — A Lebanese NGO has launched an international appeal for help to combat the environmental crisis caused by a huge oil spill south of Beirut, more than two weeks into an Israeli air war.

"The escalating Israeli attacks on Lebanon did not only kill its civilians and destroy its infrastructure, but it is also annihilating the environment," warned the Green Line Association.

It said an air strike two weeks ago on Jiyeh power plant which serves southern Lebanon had resulted in a 15,000-ton oil spill.

"The power plant has six fuel tanks. Four of them have burnt completely, while the fifth one, which is also the main cause of the spill, is still burning," it warned.

The spill has hit more than 60 miles of the Lebanese coast from Jiyyeh to Shekka, north of the capital, including Beirut's only sandy public beach of Ramlet al-Baida, said Green Line.

"This is definitely one of the worst environmental crises in Lebanese history," the group said in a joint statement with other environmental groups.

The NGOs warned that the marine environment, including the endangered green turtle — not to mention the future tourism prospects of Lebanon — would "suffer tremendously for several years from this spill."

"This oil spill is bigger than what the local authorities can handle and urgent help is needed from outside," they said, while adding that Israel's sustained air strikes were endangering those involved in clean-up operations.

The environment ministry, which has received a pledge from Kuwait to share its expertise in ecological crises built up after the 1991 Gulf War, said a complete clean-up would cost tens of millions of dollars.

While residents of the Beirut area have been advised to steer clear of the Mediterranean waters, officials said Wednesday the ancient Phoenician port of Byblos had also been polluted by the oil slick.

Fishing boats at the port, north of Beirut, were surrounded by a large oil slick while nearby beaches were also covered by the sticky fluid.

The pollution, which has killed fish and much of the marine life in the area, threatens a wider ecological catastrophe, Environment Minister Yacub Sarraf has said.

Sarraf and residents said the slick was also caused by a leak from an Egyptian commercial boat which was hit by a missile off Beirut during the battles between Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces.

An Egyptian sailor was killed when the boat was apparently hit by a Hezbollah missile, as it sailed close to Israeli naval vessels.

Four Israeli sailors were also killed when their warship, which was patrolling Lebanese waters as part of a massive air and sea blockade, was hit in the attack.

"The black slick appeared about seven or eight days ago and is becoming thicker by the day," said Zalpha Sfeir, a resident of the picturesque resort town known for its Phoenician ruins and fish restaurants.

"It will take six months to clean up everything, when the boats which are off the coast will stop dumping all their toxic liquids," she said.

Officials in Lebanon's northern neighbour Syria issued a similar warning after a slick reached its shores.

"A black slick spread over six miles appeared yesterday (Wednesday) on the Syrian coast," said Hassan Murjan, environment official for the southern port of Tartus.

"It's diesel from the electric power station or the boat that were attacked in Lebanon," he said, adding that tests were being done to determine where the oil came from.

The rocky nature of the coastline meant the pollution would have to be cleaned by hand "which will take some time," he said.

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DayDreamer
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posted August 16, 2006 04:59 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
War's Oil Spill Could Rival Exxon Valdez
AFP

Aug. 15, 2006 — Officials from the United Nations, European Union and a maritime organization are set to meet in Greece Thursday to map out a strategy for containing a massive Mediterranean oil spill caused by the conflict in Lebanon.

Nearly 15,000 tons of leaked oil from the Jiyyeh electric plant, bombed by Israel last month, has polluted some 87 miles of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

If all the oil from the damaged facility, 30 miles south of Beruit, were to seep into the sea, officials said, the environmental fallout could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound.

"The objective of the meeting is to coordinate a common strategy to confront the pollution and to devise actions to prevent the possible expansion of the oil spill," said a communique released by the UNEP and the International Maritime Organization, which are jointly hosting the meeting in Piraeus.

UNEP head Achim Steiner and IMO secretary general Efthymios Mitropoulos will chair the meeting, also to be attended by EU Commissioner for the environment Stavros Dimas. Representatives from Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey will also participate, the Greek Merchant Marine said.

Environmental officials and inspectors have said that the spill poses a direct threat to marine life and could also be hazardous to human health, including a heightened risk of cancer.

More oil has already spilled from the Jiyyeh plant than leaked from the Erika oil tanker into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of France in 1999.

"In the worst-case scenario, if all the oil contained in the bombed power plant at Jiyyeh leaked into the Mediterranean Sea the Lebanese oil spill could well rival the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989," the UNEP said.

The Exxon Valdez spilled 37,000 tons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound after running aground on a reef on March 24, 1989, causing massive damage from which some scientists argue the area has yet to completely recover.

UNEP said two environmental experts had arrived in Syria to begin assessing the impact of the Jiyyeh spill, which it said it feared had already affected marine life, particularly tuna and turtles, in the Mediterranean.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/08/15/oilspill_pla.html?category=travel&guid= 20060815120000

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lioneye68
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posted August 16, 2006 05:42 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
That sucks.

Well, at least now that there's a cease fire, they can get to work cleaning it up. Canada has some of the best oil spill clean-up technology in the world. Maybe we can help ??? I guess they'd have to ask, or we'd have to officially offer, in order for that to happen.

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DayDreamer
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posted August 24, 2006 12:02 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Oil slick has sunk to seabed, says Greenpeace

John Vidal
Wednesday August 23, 2006

Guardian

Much of the oil slick off the Lebanese coast has sunk to the seabed, creating a 10cm (4in) carpet of oil suffocating marine life, according to Greenpeace and Lebanese divers.
An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes of oil escaped into the sea following the bombing of the Jieh power plant by Israel on July 13 and 15. This has contaminated up to 30 areas along 90 miles of Lebanese coast.

The full extent of the spill has yet to be fully assessed as aerial surveillance is not possible due to an air blockade. There were fears that oil on the seabed could be brought to the surface with currents and winds.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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