Black day for Samet

[sandrabbit]

Thinking aloud....some issues not reported...Is this an SBM event or a pipeline event?

Where is the 'Oil Spill Recovery / Clean Up contractor that is nominated in the original Envoronmental Impact Statement? Future; The most critical concern is the integrity of the Single Bouy Mooring (SBM) and an urgent revision of operating procedures for it. (I understand that this is not the first spill from this SBM instalation).

Who is the SBM's owner operator?

Was the Oil Tanker Damaged.

Who is the owner or chartered operator the Tanker that was delivering oil at the time of the oil spill.

If the SBM has to be replaced can it be installed further offshore? (8 kilometers from the beach is probably too close).

There probably isn't an environmental impact study, the amount of incidents in the Maptaphut & Rayong area speaks for itself. The area is badly polluted and Ban Phe is normally lucky that the tides and winds take the pollution away from it but the results of it can still be seen if you dig down into the sand on the beaches here.

[freedom4life]

OMG

I am no expert but based on the pictures it looks like it will be months or years before it gets cleaned up, if ever.

The only positive is that PTT is responsible and that is a very large, very professional company. They account for around 30% of the SET. They should be able to marshal resources to address this with the best technologies.

Should not of happened in the first place....period.

[hubahuba]

PTTGC confident of clearing oil spill in Phrao Bay within two days, to reopen for tourism in seven days /MCOT

So when did pigs grow wings

[GentlemanJim]

PTTGC confident of clearing oil spill in Phrao Bay within two days, to reopen for tourism in seven days

Thailand....Hub of blind faith and optimism The only tourism that beach will be fit for in the next 7 days will be an annual reunion for the Captain and Crew of the Exxon Valdez.

[slipperylobster]

This news kind of slowed down my desires to travel to Rayong. I heard there was a big industrial park there, and we figured the beaches in either Ban Chang or Klang would be ok. I just wondered where this stuff was going to drift next....what other beaches are going to be affected... Also is this just the beginning of a an upcoming problem in that area. Will it get better or worse? Long term planning. We are heading down there for a look next month. Lots of rain, but we are trying to get settled before the tourist season arrives.

[morpho]

I'm no oil cleanup expert but having been a wildlife biologist in a previous life, I worked with many. My guess is that the damage has already been done and it will be years (i.e., decade or longer) before those beaches recover. The Thais working on this need to save losing any more face and call in foreign help ASAP from cleanup experts who actually know what they are doing before it gets any worse.

The evaporation rate is much much higher due to higher temperature and higher winds spreading the oil faster than for example in Alaska so it will not take very long. Some even say the use of Coreexit in BP spill made the spill even more toxic to the environment than the oil alone.

Yeah, my understanding is that a lot factors come into play...water temp and salinity, ambient air temps, exposure time, depth of exposure, sand or substrate texture, oil viscosity, dispersants used, etc But the pics are quite dramatic and definitely show that some beaches got a real soaking of oil.

[BudRight]

 

BUCKETS!? They're going to clean up the spill with BUCKETS!?

They cleaned up the beaches from Deepwater Horizon using buckets - I thought people would be pleased that the "ignorant" Thais were copying the "intelligent" Westerners

I don't care if they used thimbles and coffee straws to clean up the Deep Water Horizon spill. It's an environmental disaster and it needs to be cleaned up faster and better than by a bunch of conscripts with plastic pails.

Edited July 30, 2013 by BudRight

[EyesWideOpen]

It's going to take longer than 15 days to clean up if they only use paper towels of this size...!

Time to start asking for some outside help Thailand!?

Hahaha no, not paper towels. They are special pads that absorb oil but not water. Millions of them were used on the Exxon Valdez spill for beach clean up. But here they are using them wrong. General usage of them was for cleaning of rocks by hand. For open beach like this ,there should be pressure steam cleaning driving the oil from the high tide line down to the low tide line, and then picked up.

Not really sure if farangs are actually gloating, but the barrage of lies from PTT and the government regarding the scope of this disaster is a bit annoying. Initial reports were that it was a minor spill that was contained by booms. Photos are showing that was a bit of a porkie.....Also insane statements like saying the beaches will be ready to use in 7 days is certainly not inspiring confidence about the mental capacity of the people doing the clean up.

I spent 5 months working on the Exxon Valdez spill, and I can say the whole thing is pretty horrific, and certainly not a joke.

Note to self: Do not eat any locally caught seafood for the next year.

Edited July 30, 2013 by EyesWideOpen

[GentlemanJim]

EyesWideOpen

Given your experience, what is your judgement in terms of the amount of 'spillage' here? I can't help feeling this is in the order of many hundreds, if not thousands of tons, it just seems to big. Considering booms and dispersal agents have allegedly already been used, to see a slick of this density and size hit land and the sat images of the progressing slick then as a layman I am left in serious doubt as to the claims of the Government and PTT that this is a 70 ton spillage. PTT are still giving out official statements that this is not a serious situation!!

As a general observation, when the Deepwater Horizon landfall took place of the oil slicks we saw hundreds if not thousands of local people out working all day with buckets and hoses to help rapidly clean and implement damage limitation to help protect their locality/way of life/businesses. Is it likely that we will see Thai people muster together to protect their local environment if there is not 300 baht per day in it for them?

[EyesWideOpen]

EyesWideOpen

Given your experience, what is your judgement in terms of the amount of 'spillage' here? I can't help feeling this is in the order of many hundreds, if not thousands of tons, it just seems to big. Considering booms and dispersal agents have allegedly already been used, to see a slick of this density and size hit land and the sat images of the progressing slick then as a layman I am left in serious doubt as to the claims of the Government and PTT that this is a 70 ton spillage. PTT are still giving out official statements that this is not a serious situation!!

As a general observation, when the Deepwater Horizon landfall took place of the oil slicks we saw hundreds if not thousands of local people out working all day with buckets and hoses to help rapidly clean and implement damage limitation to help protect their locality/way of life/businesses. Is it likely that we will see Thai people muster together to protect their local environment if there is not 300 baht per day in it for them?

Hard to say of the size, but I think you can be pretty sure that whatever number PTT is putting out is way low... :-) In the Valdez spill the water was very cold, so the oil would tend to congeal in large sort of blobs that were quite thick. The skimmer boats would go out looking for these blobs and then skim them. Here it looks like with warm water it is distributed more evenly. Regarding the size, I can only go by a oil spill clean up site:

http://www.absorbentsonline.com/oilspillbasics.htm

They are saying crude oil on water is .1 mm , so you can do your own math, with a slick volume of 13 square kilometers...

One huge mistake was made at the onset. It should have been burned when it was small. Looks bad at first with the sea in flames, but much better long term for the environment.( the sea anyway...) But that would have involved some rapid high powered decision making at the top levels. This was discussed at the onset for the Valdez spill, but a decision could not be made. Once the oil really spreads out, it is too late for that option.

[pb1936]

Well it's taken the spotlight off the rice for a while !

[Thai at Heart]

EyesWideOpen

Given your experience, what is your judgement in terms of the amount of 'spillage' here? I can't help feeling this is in the order of many hundreds, if not thousands of tons, it just seems to big. Considering booms and dispersal agents have allegedly already been used, to see a slick of this density and size hit land and the sat images of the progressing slick then as a layman I am left in serious doubt as to the claims of the Government and PTT that this is a 70 ton spillage. PTT are still giving out official statements that this is not a serious situation!!

As a general observation, when the Deepwater Horizon landfall took place of the oil slicks we saw hundreds if not thousands of local people out working all day with buckets and hoses to help rapidly clean and implement damage limitation to help protect their locality/way of life/businesses. Is it likely that we will see Thai people muster together to protect their local environment if there is not 300 baht per day in it for them?

Hard to say of the size, but I think you can be pretty sure that whatever number PTT is putting out is way low... :-) In the Valdez spill the water was very cold, so the oil would tend to congeal in large sort of blobs that were quite thick. The skimmer boats would go out looking for these blobs and then skim them. Here it looks like with warm water it is distributed more evenly. Regarding the size, I can only go by a oil spill clean up site:

http://www.absorbentsonline.com/oilspillbasics.htm

They are saying crude oil on water is .1 mm , so you can do your own math, with a slick volume of 13 square kilometers...

One huge mistake was made at the onset. It should have been burned when it was small. Looks bad at first with the sea in flames, but much better long term for the environment.( the sea anyway...) But that would have involved some rapid high powered decision making at the top levels. This was discussed at the onset for the Valdez spill, but a decision could not be made. Once the oil really spreads out, it is too late for that option.

That would depend on how big they told the authorities it was at the beginning.

Why burn only 50 cubic of oil. That can be boomed and picked up. If it had been admitted it was 200 cubic, maybe they would have burnt it.

[amykat]

About 20 minutes ago, I saw the President of PTT interviewed on CNN. He said the cleanup would be finished by TOMORROW !!

[morpho]

Absorbent pads appear to have some effect...at least on the surface of flat beach sections.

[HerbalEd]

All about the beach and little about the marine life.

That's because at present they know a lot about the effect on the beach and very little (so far) about the effects on marine life.

[metisdead]

Nonsense trolling posts and replies have been removed.

[SunsetT]

Never nice to see, but at least the government has plenty of funds in the kitty to spend on the clean-up... I mean they've been charging foreigners 400 baht to get into the 'national marine park' for how many years?

200 baht not 400.

[SunsetT]

I just hope, in their hurry to clean up, they dont go crazy using toxic dispersant chemicals which could be even more damaging to the wildlife and environment than the oil.... Not to mention the possibility of a few more mysterious tourist deaths.

[ratcatcher]

About 20 minutes ago, I saw the President of PTT interviewed on CNN. He said the cleanup would be finished by TOMORROW !!

Unfortunately, that seems to be the norm here. Instead of the boss of PTT saying:

" We at PTT have a very serious situation at the moment, we are throwing all our resources at it combined with military and government aid, and we will not be able to give a date when the clean up will be finished. Our priority is restoring the beach and marine environment as much as is humanly possible under the circumstances. If it takes a month, so be it. The environmental impact is far greater than the impact on tourism. We believe this is the best interests of everyone.Thank you for your attention" ,

he said. "Don't worry, everythings gonna be alright, back in business by Thursday, not sure which Thursday though"

[morpho]

After working 30+ years in the environmental protection field back in the States, one thing I find interesting in this situation is that I have not heard or seen any Thai or foreign environmental group (or fishermen) screaming bloody murder about the effects on the marine and avian life that will result from this. You hear a lot of people complaining and worrying about the money to be lost from tourism but that's about it. If something like this would have happened in places like San Francisco Bay or California coast back home, there would be countless environmental groups, fishermen, birders, you-name-it screaming for the local, State, and Federal government and the company involved to react ASAP.

[metisdead]

Off topic posts have been removed.

[Ciocco]

Honestly, looking the few different television channels showing the "cleaning" in Samet i cannot realize if it's more tragic or ridicolus... people filling bins with water and oil with bins falling continuely and rolling on the waves mote... others moving barrers uo and down for nothing... others more taking out the sand with toys...

Did you seen the same imagines?

Poor Samet, poor Thailand...

[rubberduck]

What they gonna do with those thousands of plastic bags with oil etc. ? They gonna dump them on a random place in the nature were are no camera's or what ?

[Ciocco]

What they gonna do with those thousands of plastic bags with oil etc. ? They gonna dump them on a random place in the nature were are no camera's or what ?

The problem it's how they are doing the cleaning... not what they will do with that rubbish... take a look to the news channels, and let me know if you do not feel unconfortable looking them operating in that way...

[bartender100]

Never nice to see, but at least the government has plenty of funds in the kitty to spend on the clean-up... I mean they've been charging foreigners 400 baht to get into the 'national marine park' for how many years?

200 baht not 400.

Last time I was there, we "sold" our park tickets back to someone for B50 each as we left. So not all the money is reaching the park fund

[DocN]

After working 30+ years in the environmental protection field back in the States, one thing I find interesting in this situation is that I have not heard or seen any Thai or foreign environmental group (or fishermen) screaming bloody murder about the effects on the marine and avian life that will result from this. You hear a lot of people complaining and worrying about the money to be lost from tourism but that's about it. If something like this would have happened in places like San Francisco Bay or California coast back home, there would be countless environmental groups, fishermen, birders, you-name-it screaming for the local, State, and Federal government and the company involved to react ASAP.

Because the almighty Baht is God in Thailand.

And forward thinking does merely exist!

So: they may estimate, what 3 days/ weeks/ month of clean up might cost them, but they have no clue/ no interest, what damage might arise later, when the reefs are dead, the fish are gon and tourists will wipe tar from underneath their feet, 2 years from now!

[zydeco]

Seems that ever since the tsunami, Thailand has lurched from one natural or man-made catastrophe to the other. Catastrophe is becoming the Thai normal.

[jamhar]

Update.

Just got back to the island on the 5:30 boat.

The channel is still completely clear, with not even the hint of
petroleum smell. And I saw no evidence of oil at Nadan Pier. The
winds are still to the north east so it will continue to drive the oil
slick north to the mainland or to the east side of the island.

The clean up boats are going towards the east side of the island now.
To me that means they are no longer just trying to contain the oil to
keep it from coming into the channel, they are attacking it. Going
out to find stray pockets! Thats great news!

I've never seen so much oil cleaned up so fast. Who ever organized
this effort deserves some credit. They did, and are doing a great
job. But i hope once the shock wears off, they will continue to try
and clean up the east side. That side will need clean up for a long
time.

[metisdead]

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[slipperylobster]

I was just heading down to the exact spot where the Oil Spill is heading. Its pretty much spread out between Koh Samet and Klaeng. Calls for foreign assistance are already in. Looks like Singapore will send in some assistance. Suggest looking at some aerial photos on the news, for those who think this is not going to be a long term project.