Get your very own human hair mat! It turns out that human hair, just like bird’s feathers, are great at soaking up oil. This YouTube video shows volunteers using these hair mats to soak up oil on Ocean Beach. In addition to getting your own hair mat, you can also encourage your local neighborhood hair salon to donate hair (tax deductible!) to Matter of Trust to make new mats.
Kill the Spill, the EPA and the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management have put together a number of 4 hour HazMat Training courses. These are normally 40 hour courses, but given the limited scope and relatively low risk to workers in this oil spill, the EPA has agreed to certify volunteers for the duration of this disaster.
Following the training, you can join cleanups led by San Francisco on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The next training session is tomorrow night:
Wednesday, November 14th, 6PM to 10PM
County Fair Building at 9th Ave and Lincoln in Golden Gate Park
Why hasn’t Ocean Beach been closed? I was out at Ocean Beach yesterday along with hundreds of volunteers, cleaning tarballs from the sand. Hundreds of volunteers. Who just spent 4 hours learning about the dangers of hydrogen sulfide and benzo(a)pyrene and how to safely and comfortably wear a tyvek suit. And nobody is doing anything about the children playing in the water. Yes, the photo below is a picture of a family building sand castles and playing in the water amidst bunker fuel tar balls.
I asked a friendly police officer why Ocean Beach isn’t closed. He said that it’s the largest beach in San Francisco, and if they closed it, he would have to spend all day arresting people. I guess he’s right, it’s not worth doing a damn thing.
Please join us in asking Mayor Newsom, Supervisor McGoldrick, Supervisor Chu, and Supervisor Elsbernd to keep parents from bringing their kids to the beach!
It seems like many people want to help, but have no idea what to do with their collected oil. There are disposal sites all around the bay area that will gladly take up to 15 gallons of your oil at a time. Note that you have to be a resident of the town in which you deposit your oil. In San Francisco, use Sunset Scavenger’s “Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Facility”, near Cow Palace.
UPDATE: Sunset Scavenger is actually refusing oil from the Cosco Busan spill given that it is not “household” waste, and that Hanjin Shipping is ultimately responsible for the costs of oil cleanup. I am tracking down better options, but it is not easy. I know there are disposal bins all along ocean beach in San Francisco. More info to follow soon…
Looking for more ways to clean up? This is another good oil filtration prototype, and brilliant in the fact that it is built into a standard five-gallon bucket which can be dropped off at many local hazardous waste facilities.
Looking for a way to clean up your slip or your local waterfront? Take a look at this Instructable posted by Adam. Remember to wear elbow length gloves if you plan to do any clean up yourself!
On Saturday, despite our earlier ambitions to try to do something to help, we were despondent given the Coast Guard’s demands that individuals not help in the clean-up efforts. We went to our slip at the Emeryville Marina to do a regular day’s work, only to find most of the slips filled with oil sheen and tar balls. This is a photo composite of the slips of many of our neighbors at the marina.
This is fascinating. Thanks to our friends at BoatingSF.com, we can now watch the Cosco Busan strike the Bay Bridge. This is a flash animation using historical data compiled from their AIS ship tracking system. Watch as the Cosco Busan heads directly towards one of the bridge towers, despite a nearly half mile span between towers.
Following the collision, the ship travels about two miles before coming to a rest. No rescue or clean-up vessels are shown in this history, though this may simply be due to a lack of AIS transponders on those vessels.
We went to take a close look at the crash site. Notice that the oil-blackened concrete wall behind the wooden barrier bears a striking resemblance to a can opener. Not a single boat was within a mile of us, until we were intercepted and ordered to leave by an armed Coast Guard vessel.
After learning of the severity of the crash on Thursday, we decided to take a look for ourselves at what was happening. This photo was taken on the bay on Thursday near a number of large oil slicks, about a half mile from the collision site. Notice the complete absence of anyone doing anything to address the problem.
This is a 140 gallon refrigerator. When the crash occurred, this volume of oil was spilling into the bay every 4 seconds for half an hour.
Not until Wednesday night does the Coast Guard announce the true severity of the oil spill. By this time, 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker oil have been allowed to spread for twelve hours.
As you probably know by now, the cargo ship Cosco Busan struck support W4 of the Bay Bridge at about 8:30 AM, Wednesday morning. Initial Coast Guard reports indicate that 140 gallons of oil are spilled.
