Oil Spill Update: Alcatraz Island Wildlife Impacts

Seven months after the Cosco Busan oil spill, populations of breeding birds on Alcatraz Island - the largest bird-breeding ground in San Francisco Bay -- appear to be down, according to researchers. A number of factors -- from oil getting into the food chain to climate-related changes -- may be to blame.

Watch the ABC-7 (KGO TV) news story here.

Tar Balls Found on Alameda Beach

from the SF Chronicle:

Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda was temporarily closed Tuesday afternoon after tar balls - possibly remnants of the Nov. 7 Cosco Busan spill of bunker fuel - were discovered on a quarter-mile strip of sand. The beach is near sensitive habitat supporting the endangered clapper rail.

Although the source of the oil is unknown, other oil slicks believed related to the Cosco Busan spill have turned up in the bay this week.

Read the full story here.

Protect our beautiful bay from oil spills

SF Chronicle editorial by Sejal Choksi, SF Baykeeper:

"The governor's proactive support for expanding the state's oiled wildlife response program, improving emergency response at refineries, and establishing a new program to clean up inland oil spills is a good first step toward protecting California waters and wildlife. But these three bills alone do not address the current flaws in California's oil spill response program. We urge the governor to go further in reforming California's oil spill response procedures by supporting the full package of oil spill bills in the legislature."

Read the full editorial and learn about all proposed bills.

SF: OIL SPILL PILOT ASKS JUDGE TO DISMISS THREE CRIMINAL CHARGES

From CBS-5 News:

The pilot of the Cosco Busan asked a federal judge Friday to dismiss three of the four criminal charges filed against him.

Lawyers for pilot John Cota argued in papers filed with U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco that two charges of making false statements and one charge of polluting the bay should be dismissed because they are legally defective.

Illston will hold a hearing on the motions on July 18. Cota, 60, of Petaluma, is tentatively scheduled to go on trial in Illston's court on Oct. 20 on those three charges as well as a fourth count of killing migratory birds with the spilled oil.

Read more

Renegade Birders To the Rescue

Flashback to November 2007: While official cleanup agencies dragged their feet, a small group of East Bay birders took matters into their own hands, rescuing oiled birds on the unprotected Richmond and Albany shorelines. Read their fascinating story here, from Terrain Magazine's Spring 2008 issue.

http://www.ecologycenter.org/terrain/article.php?id=13629

Governor Backs Oil Spill Bills: But Is it Enough?

from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Gov. Schwarzenegger met with lawmakers to endorse three bills to improve emergency response guidelines as a result of the Cosco Busan spill in November, but spurned spill-response bills by Bay Area reps Loni Hancock (AB2031) and Mark Leno (AB2547). The latter's bill stressed investing in improved cleanup and response technologies:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/12/BA5M117KGF.DTL


Related stories & backgrounders:

Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/12/usa1

Mercury News (Lawmakers Advance on Spill Legislation): http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9432262

SF Chronicle (summary of response bills): http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/08/BATF101B97.DTL

Newsblaze.com (summarizes what endorsed bills would do): http://newsblaze.com/story/20080612122735zzzz.nb/topstory.html

Tar Sands "Ponds of Death" Kill 500 Sea Ducks Returning to Canada

Imagine an oil spill that never gets cleaned up, but only gets bigger and bigger, killing birds as they land at night. That's what's happening right now in Alberta, Canada, where the tailings ponds from tar sands oil extraction are creating lethal hazards for many species of ducks and songbirds. Scoter and scaup populations in Canada's Western Boreal Forest -- the world's largest land-based ecosystem, and the breeding grounds for billions of migratory birds -- are especially being impacted by these "ponds of death". This week alone, nearly 500 migrating ducks died in a Syncrude tailing pond, according to the Boreal Songbird Initiative.

The threat is only going to worsen: Canada is banking on tar sands extraction as a big source of income, and is even boasting of its excellent environmental record to the US in order to "sell" tar sands as a "safe" form of oil extraction.

Learn more here: http://www.borealbirds.org/news_pages/news_list.php