A Hong Kong-based shipping company is expected to be fined $10 million Friday by a federal judge for its role in a 2007 oil spill.
Fleet Management Inc., which was the operator of the Cosco Busan when two of its fuel hulls were torn open after colliding with a Bay Bridge tower, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the U.S. Clean Water Act.
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More than two years after a medically unfit bar pilot plowed a cargo ship into a Bay Bridge tower, the waterway remains vulnerable to further oil spills because other bar pilots may be unfit for duty.
The nearly 60 local bar pilots who guide ships through San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun bays came under intense scrutiny in late 2007 after a colleague, Capt. John Cota, directed the Cosco Busan container ship into the bridge, causing a 53,500-gallon oil spill.
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Two years after a rigid bumper system on a Bay Bridge tower ripped open two fuel tanks of a wayward cargo ship, the dangerously outdated technology remains in use.
After the Cosco Busan crashed into the Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of oil Nov. 7, 2007, the damaged bumper system — which is in place to protect the span’s towers from ships — was rebuilt with the same 1930s technology, despite newer designs being available.
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As San Francisco Bay herring fishermen prepare to sit out the winter season due to a crash in fish populations, new data show that the majority of eggs laid near shore were killed or hideously deformed due to the November 2007
oil spill.
The eggs studied were exposed to toxins contained in the 54,000 gallons of fuel that gushed into the water after the Cosco Busan container ship crashed into a Bay Bridge tower.
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An oil tanker Friday morning spilled “less than a few thousand gallons” of fuel into the Bay, rather than the 100-gallon figure reported by officials earlier in the morning, Mayor Gavin Newsom said.
The spill, which has produced a 1-mile-long sheen on the Bay, was reported at 6:48 a.m. from a vessel anchored at Anchorage Nine, located about 2.5 miles southeast of the Bay Bridge, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
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The bar pilot who directed the Cosco Busan container ship into a Bay Bridge tower in 2007, causing a 53,000-gallon oil spill that killed wildlife and closed beaches, was scheduled to report to prison today. The 61-year-old, however, will spend an extra month at his Petaluma home nursing a foot-surgery related injury, court documents show. Cota was sentenced in July to 10 months in prison.
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Chinese crew members aboard the Cosco Busan container ship when it hit the Bay Bridge in November will continue to be held in the United States as witnesses, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The six men, none of whom have been charged with any crimes, are at the center of a legal battle about the crash, which caused an oil spill that killed wildlife and fouled beaches.
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Although six Chinese crew members from the container ship that struck the Bay Bridge in November have been detained in the U.S. for the past 9½ months, one worker will be allowed to travel to China to visit his ailing grandmother, a judge ruled Thursday.
Zong Bin Li was a seaman aboard the 900-foot Cosco Busan on Nov. 7 when it spilled more than 50,000 gallons of toxic shipping fuel into the Bay, killing thousands of birds.
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A bill passed the California State Assembly on Tuesday that lowers the allowable response time to an oil spill in San Francisco Bay from six hours to two hours.
Senate Bill 1056, authored by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco/North Bay, is a legislative response to what she said she believes was a slow response to the Cosco Busan oil spill in November.
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The state Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would provide greater public oversight of the board that regulates maritime pilots who assist large ships in the Bay. The bill, submitted in response to the Nov. 7 Cosco Busan crash that spilled more than 53,000 gallons of oil into the Bay, is now headed to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk. The governor has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto the bill, SB 1217.
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