By Angela Macdonald-Smith and Madelene Pearson
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Australia’s Queensland state is coordinating a clean-up of about 20 metric tons of heavy fuel oil that leaked from a container ship yesterday and has washed up along the eastern shoreline of Moreton Island off Brisbane.
About 30 employees from Maritime Safety Queensland, the state Environmental Protection Agency, Port of Brisbane Corp. and Brisbane City Council have been involved in assessing the effect of the spill on a 10-kilometer (6-mile) stretch of beachfront, the Queensland government said today in a statement.
The fuel oil leaked from the MV Pacific Adventurer when 31 containers carrying ammonium nitrate came loose in rough seas and pierced the hull. The containers were part of a cargo of 50 owned by Orica Ltd., the world’s largest explosives maker, each carrying 20 tons of the chemical that was traveling from Newcastle to Indonesia via Brisbane.
“At this stage, Maritime Safety Queensland has not been notified of any extensive oil contamination of wildlife,” Transport Minister John Mickel said in the statement. “However the potential hazard remains significant.”
The outgoing tide on the Sunshine Coast has revealed an “extensive oil film” along beaches from Mudjimba to Coolum and from Point Cartwright to Kawana, the government said.
The ship is berthed at Fisherman Islands wharf at Brisbane port where its remaining cargo of 19 containers have been offloaded and moved to a safe storage site, the government said.
The containers that fell overboard can be considered as “lost,” said Lisa Walters, a spokeswoman for Melbourne-based Orica.
“Once they hit water, ammonium nitrate will just dissolve and dissipate,” she said. “We are working with the Environmental Protection Agency and Queensland Maritime Safety to work out what the best recovery would be if they were to resurface.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Macdonald-Smith in Sydney at amacdonaldsm@bloomberg.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment