Oil spill reaches scenic beaches

South Korea’s largest oil spill reached part of the country’s scenic and environmentally sensitive western shore today, as the Coast Guard battled high waves and strong winds to keep more oil from washing up on beaches.

Hundreds of troops, police and residents used buckets to remove dense crude from Mallipo – one of South Korea’s best-known beaches – as dark sea water crashed ashore. The odour of oil could be smelled a half a mile away.

The region is popular for its scenic beaches and is the site of fish farms and a national maritime park. It is an important rest stop for migrating birds, including snipe, mallards and great crested grebes.

Mallipo, about 95 miles south-west of Seoul, is one of the hardest-hit areas from the oil spill, which occurred on Friday when a crane-carrying barge slammed into a supertanker, punching holes and causing it to release 66,000 barrels (2.7 million gallons) of oil into the ocean.

The spill was the country’s largest, involving twice as much oil as the worst previous spill in 1995.

The accident occurred about seven miles off Mallipo.

The oil reached shore this morning, contaminating about four miles of coastline near Mallipo, said Jung Se-hi, a spokesman at the Coast Guard headquarters in Incheon, west of Seoul.

Strong winds and prevailing currents spread the oil slick overnight to an area about a mile wide and 10 miles in length, he said.

“This is an enormous accident ... The smell is so strong that it causes a headache,” said Lee Hee-yol, a village leader at Mallipo. “We’ve asked the government to declare this region a disaster zone.”

Kim Kyung-chul, an official at the National Emergency Management Agency, said such a declaration – which would make residents eligible for government financial aid – was not yet being considered.

The government had, however, designated the oil spill a “disaster” he said, which makes it easier for regional governments in the affected areas to mobilise personnel, equipment and material to cope with the situation.

Environmental activists expressed anguish over the situation.

“It’s helpless,” said Lee Pyong-gook of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement. “It’s a sea of oil.”

The size of the leak reported by the authorities would be about one-fourth that of the 260,000 barrels, or 11 million gallons, of oil spilled into Alaska’s Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

In the South Korea spill, the Hong Kong-registered tanker Hebei Spirit and the other vessel, owned by South Korea’s Samsung Corp., were in no danger of sinking, the Coast Guard said. No casualties were reported in the accident.

The tanker had been at anchor and carrying about 260,000 tons – about 1.8 million barrels – of crude oil to be loaded into boats from a nearby port when it was hit by the South Korean barge, which was being towed by a small tugboat, said another Coast Guard official, Kim Tae-ho.

The barge, which had been moving from a construction site, lost control after a wire linking it to the tugboat was cut due to high winds, waves and currents, he said.

Kim said the Coast Guard planned to question the barge’s captain to find why he was sailing through the area despite the stormy weather.