Koreans struggle to clean up oil blackened shores

Thousands of people, some battling headaches and nausea from the stench of crude oil, used shovels and buckets to clean the muck from a once-scenic beach today after South Korea’s worst oil spill.

About 7,500 people including Coastguard, police and military personnel, as well as civil servants and volunteers, were scooping up oil that began washing ashore at Mallipo beach a day earlier from a damaged supertanker, the Coast Guard said.

Still more worked aboard 105 ships along South Korea’s western coast trying to clean the water. Mallipo is about 95 miles south-west of Seoul.

“We are working hard and making progress in the cleanup operation,” said Kim Woon-tae, a regional Coastguard official.

The Coastguard said the last of three leaks in the Hong Kong-registered supertanker Hebei Spirit, rammed on Friday by an out-of-control South Korean barge, had been plugged today and the extent of affected coastline remained stable at 11 miles.

A total of 66,000 barrels (2.7 million gallons) of crude gushed into the ocean, more than twice as much as in South Korea’s worst previous spill in 1995.

Kim Sun-seon, who works for an ocean cleanup business in Busan, on South Korea’s south-east coast, wore rubber gloves – and a mask to help cope with the strong smell of crude.

“We don’t know when we can finish this work,” she said. “We have been shovelling oil since yesterday, but the waves just keep bringing more oil. I feel dizzy.”

At sea, Coastguard personnel used a special oil fence to try keeping more crude from coming ashore. Mats to absorb oil were placed on the beach.

Oil began slopping onto the area’s beaches after a barge came loose from a tugboat in rough seas and slammed into the tanker. Waves of crude turned seagulls black and threatened fish farms along the coast.

Mallipo, one of South Korea’s most scenic beaches, is an important stopover for migrating birds such as snipe, mallards and great crested grebes, and has an abundant fishing industry.

The central government has designated the oil spill a “disaster,” which makes it easier for regional governments to mobilise personnel, equipment and material to cope with the situation. Despite pleas to do so, however, it stopped short of declaring the region a “disaster area” – which would make residents eligible for government financial aid.