Yellow Sea under threat from Dalian oil spill
- Source: Global Times
- [02:26 July 20 2010]
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Ecological impact
A climate and energy project officer for Greenpeace, Yang Ailun, told the Global Times Monday that it is impossible to totally clean up the oil that has leaked, noting that the long-term impact on the environment may last more than a decade.
"People can still feel that the sea water off Alaska is oily due to the oil spill in 1989 caused by Exxon Mobil Corporation," Yang added.
The Dalian spill poses a huge threat to marine ecology in the area, Bao Jia, a PhD candidate studying environmental sciences at Dalian Maritime University, said Monday.
"The oil is even one-meter thick in some areas, which may result in serious pollution in the Yellow Sea," he told the Global Times.
A fisherman surnamed Li worried that his business would suffer from the leak.
"It is not fishing season, so it is hard to tell how much worse my business will be, but there is no doubt that a huge number of fish will be killed," he said.
His family has been fishing in the area for more than 20 years, and they've seen the impact of environmental pollution on the fish industry in recent years.
"This time is just another extreme example," he added.
But Qianri Sea Food Corporation, based in Dalian, which owns a fish farm in the north of Dalian Bay, said Monday that the spill was far from its farming area.
"It didn't affect our products, which are mainly exported to Japan," Ye Qinglin, the marketing manager of Qianri, told the Global Times Monday.
Ongoing investigation
A Dalian municipal government press officer told the Global Times Monday that the explosions were being carefully investigated.
The 300,000-ton crude oil tanker, owned by Singapore Pacific Petroleum Pte, has been temporarily seized, Sun Benqiang, deputy chief of the municipal work safety bureau was quoted by Beijing News as saying.
The investigation team established Sunday by Liaoning officials said the explosion was triggered when a catalyst was added to the pipelines as the tanker was unloading oil Friday.
They haven't yet said who should be held responsible for the operation.
The pipelines that exploded were owned by China National Petroleum Corp.
According to the oil and gas pipeline protection law that was passed in June, when oil leaked from pipelines pollutes the environment, the enterprise that owns the pipelines is held responsible for the cleanup.
But the enterprise keeps the right to seek compensation from the third party that is proved to have caused the leak.
Liu Linlin and agencies contributed to this story
