Five Indicted in South Korean Oil Spill

South Korean prosecutors charged five people and two companies, including Samsung Heavy Industries, for marine pollution Monday in the country's worst-ever oil spill.

The Dec. 7 accident occurred after a barge slammed into a supertanker, which leaked 78,920 barrels of oil into western coastal waters. The accident jeopardized the ecosystem and the livelihood of residents in the area, home to some of the country's most scenic beaches.

The three South Korean captains of the barge and its two tugboats, along with two Indians who operated the Hong Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit, were charged with polluting the ocean and with professional negligence, the regional prosecutors' office said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Two of the South Koreans were being held in custody, while the other South Korean and the two Indians were banned from leaving the country but were not in custody, according to the statement issued in Seosan, close to the accident site 151 kilometers, or 94 miles, southwest of Seoul.

Prosecutors also charged the tanker's owner, Hebei Spirit Shipping, and the barge's operator, Samsung Heavy Industries, with polluting the ocean.

Oil Spill Off South Korean Coast: Video Report

TIME's Photogallery of South Korean Oil Spill, 2007

Photo essay by TIME Magazine...some truly "Oh My GOD" images of environmental devastation...

South Korea: Worst Oil Spill In Its History

South Korea experienced the worst oil spill in its history in an incident which saw 82,950 barrels, or 10,500 tonnes (11,571 tons), of crude oil leak from three punctured tanks of a very large crude carrier (VLCC), Hebei Spirit, on Dec. 7 into the waters off Taean County, South Chungcheong province. Oil from the damaged tanker and tar-like oil clumps have been floating to other coastal areas, threatening marine life and wild birds living there.
...
"Sandy or rocky beaches can usually be normalized in five years after an oil spill, but some mud flats and wetlands don't recover even after 20 years," said Lee Jae-hong, director of the natural preservation office at the Environment Ministry.

Some 200,000 volunteers across the country managed to curb the spread of the oil slick and clean up 70 per cent of the coastline near Cheonsuman Bay, a world renowned sanctuary for migratory birds, with the help of experts arriving from the U.SJapan, the European Union, and two U.N. agencies over the weekend. China reportedly sent 56 tonnes (62-tons) of dispersants while a private company from Singapore sent a helicopter to help with the clean-up operations.

Hebei Spirit was en route to the Daesan port to unload the crude cargo carried from the Middle East to Hyundai Oilbank's refinery on South Korea's west coast when the oil tanker was hit by a crane barge operated by Samsung Heavy Industries under rough weather conditions on Dec. 7. Samsung earlier promised to bear responsibility for the incident.

Korea Times Reports Seven Finless Porpoises Found Dead on Western Coast Beach

Seven finless porpoises have been found dead on a western coast beach hit by South Korea's worst oil spill early this month, officials said Tuesday.

A one-meter-long finless porpoise was first found dead on a beach in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, on Dec. 10, its body covered with black crude oil, wild animal rescuers of the Gum River Environmental Agency said, adding the death toll has risen to seven so far in the area.

It was not known if the deaths were related to water pollution caused by the oil spill.

The agency commissioned the National Institute of Biological Resources to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of the deaths.

The finless porpoise is a sea animal that resembles a large grey fish. It lives in the shallow coastal waters of Asia, usually some five to six kilometers off the coast and is often spotted in South Korean waters.

Lumps Of Tar Near Yeondo, South Korea: Oil Spill Clean-Up Continues

SEOUL, South Korea: Oil that spilled from a punctured supertanker off the South Korean coast has drifted in the form of tar to a distant island, as tens of thousands of people continued massive clean-up operations Saturday with the help of U.S. specialists.

Lumps of tar were spotted in waters near Yeondo, an island some 75 miles south of the site of South Korea's largest-ever oil spill that released about 66,000 barrels into the ocean on Dec. 7, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Officials said such oil lumps pose much less threat to the environment and are easier to remove than oil in liquid form.

"It's something like asphalt, and the lumps that were found near Yeondo are very small in numbers," said Lee Won-yol, an official at the main Coast Guard office overseeing clean-up operations. "We believe they pose little contamination threat and can be easily removed."

American Coast Guard and NOAA Assist South Korea in Oil Spill Clean-Up

SEOUL, South Korea (Associated Press) — A team of U.S. Coast Guard experts arrived in South Korea on Thursday to help with the country's worst oil spill, as hundreds of vessels struggled in bad weather to contain the disaster for a seventh day.

The three American Coast Guard officials have significant hands-on experience with oil-spill management and will help draw up containment measures jointly with Korean experts, the Korean Coast Guard said in a statement.

An expert from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also arrived earlier Thursday on the same mission.

South Korean Oil Spill: 'The Government Needs To Pay'

Thousands of residents helped with the clean-up, saying there was nothing else to do now that tourism has died in a region famed for its sandy beaches. Fisheries ground to a halt.

Kim Soo-ha, 63, wept at her oyster farm as she held dead shellfish coated in tar.

"I sent my kids to college by making money from this," she said. "I don't know how I'm going to live. They say they can't do anything about it for the next 10 years."

Environmental groups say oil in the Taean seabed and the loss of food for aquatic species will cause damage to the ecosystem that will last for years.

Hotels in the region are vacant and several restaurants that catered to tourists posted signs in their windows reading: "The government needs to pay".

South Korea has declared the region a disaster area but initially freed up only a little over $6 million in aid. It has yet to give an estimate for the damage.

A maritime ministry official said the country lacked enough clean-up equipment and was ill prepared, Yonhap news agency said.

An Impossible Task: Oil Spill Clean-Up of South Korean Beaches

South Korean beaches declared a disaster area; despite many individuals working around the clock, the clean-up appears to be an impossible task.

Area Map of South Korean Oil Spill

"The oil stuck to the shore or sank to the sea bottom, causing serious damage to the maritime biology and ecosystem in the region,” Mr. Kang said. “Even if some maritime organisms survive, they won’t be marketable for quite a while.”

Coast guard vessels hurried to establish floating oil fences, but high waves left them useless. Offshore, 105 coast guard, navy and private fishing boats were throwing absorbing cloth and spraying chemicals, as oil continued to zigzag toward the shore, where people wearing rubber gloves and masks spread out with mats to absorb oil.

“All day, people have been scrubbing boulders coated with oil and scooping up sand soaked with oil,” said Lee Hyun-jin, a resident in the village of Sowon in Taean. “But now they are retreating because the sea is in high tide again. We feel hopelessly outnumbered.”

NY TIMES

'I Think We Are Finished': Oil Clean-Up in South Korea Virtually Impossible

By Sunday (today), it became clear to local residents that they were battling an environmental disaster. The tidal flats near the county of Taean, about 150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, are home to rich wildlife, oyster and fish farms, and a national park. Each year, millions of tourists flock there to bathe in the summer or watch winter migrating birds stopping to feed in the muddy flats teeming with clams.

“Everyone is out there fighting. There is so much oil we have to use buckets to scoop it up,” Moon Hong Chol, a resident in Wonbuk village in Taean, said by telephone. “The dark brown slime is all over our oyster and abalone and clam beds. Tourists are canceling resort reservations. I think we are finished.”

Oil Spill South of Seoul, South Korea Stinks

About 70 boats and six helicopters were sent...to help the clean-up as hundreds of soldiers, coast guards, police and local residents used buckets to remove dense crude oil from Mallipo, one of South Korea's best-known and most popular beaches.

Residents said the oil could be smelt more than half a mile inland, as the slick contaminated four miles of shoreline.

"This is an enormous accident … the smell is so strong that it causes a headache," said Lee Hee-yol, a village leader at Mallipo. "We've asked the government to declare this region as a disaster zone."

The area, about 95 miles south-west of the capital, Seoul, is also the site of farms that produce abalone, seaweed, clams and sea cucumbers and the spill is likely to affect at least 4,000 fishermen. It is also home to a national maritime park and is an important sanctuary for migrating birds, including snipe, mallards and great crested grebes.

'A Sea of Oil': 2.7 Million Gallons Threaten South Korea

By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer

MALLIPO BEACH, South Korea - Residents and emergency workers used buckets to remove dense crude oil from South Korea's western shore as the Coast Guard struggled in high waves and strong winds to contain the country's largest oil spill Saturday.

The oil was reaching scenic and ecologically sensitive areas. At Mallipo — one of South Korea's best-known beaches — tides of dark sea water crashed ashore, while the odor could be smelled a half-mile away. Hundreds of troops, police and residents were engaged in cleanup efforts there.

Oil was still trickling out of the tanker hit Friday, but Kim Woon-tae, a Coast Guard official, said the last of three holes would soon be sealed completely. The Coast Guard headquarters had said Friday that all three punctured containers on the tanker were plugged.

The region is popular for its scenic beaches and is also the site of fish farms, a national maritime park and is an important rest stop for migrating birds.

Mallipo, about 95 miles southwest of Seoul, is one of the hardest-hit areas in the oil spill, which occurred Friday when a barge carrying a crane slammed into the supertanker, causing it to release 2.7 million gallons of oil into the ocean.

The spill involved about twice as much oil as the country's previous largest in 1995.

The oil reached shore Saturday morning, contaminating about 4 miles of coastline, said Jung Se-hi, a spokesman at the Coast Guard headquarters in Incheon. Strong winds and prevailing currents spread the oil slick overnight to an area about 1 mile wide and 10 miles in length, he said.

Environmental activists expressed anguish over the situation.

"It's helpless," said Lee Pyong-gook, an activist with the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement. "It's a sea of oil."

Lee said the region is a major stopover for migratory snipe. "It was fortunate that those birds have yet to arrive," he said, adding however, that some seagulls had been tarred by oil.

The Coast Guard sent 67 vessels and six helicopters to the site Saturday in an effort to clean up the spill, said Kim Woon-tae, a Coast Guard official who is stationed in the region.

"We're doing our best to remove the contamination as quickly as possible, but it will take some time to clean up the shore because it needs to be done by hand," said Kim, who is stationed in the region. Kim also said it was difficult to predict how long it will take to remove oil from the sea.

The size of the leak reported by the authorities would be about one-fourth that of the 260,000 barrels, or 11 million gallons, of oil spilled into Alaska's Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

The tanker, the Hebei Spirit, and the other vessel, owned by South Korea's Samsung Corp., were in no danger of sinking, the Coast Guard said. There were no casualties in the accident.

The tanker was at anchor, around 7 miles from Mallipo, and carrying about 260,000 tons of crude oil — about 1.8 million barrels — to be loaded into boats from a nearby port when it was hit by the South Korean barge, said Kim Tae-ho, another Coast Guard official.

The barge, which was being towed from a construction site by a small tug boat, lost control after a wire linking it to the tug was cut due to high winds, waves and currents, he said.

Kim said the Coast Guard planned to question the barge's captain as to why he was sailing through the area despite the stormy weather.

__

Associated Press writer Jae-Soon Chang in Seoul contributed to this report.