HEBEI SPIRIT Response Activities and Future Plan

Abstract

On December 7, 2007, a crane-carrying barge collided with the Hong Kong registered tanker, Hebei Spirit, 10km off the coast of Taean Providence. With 3 punctures, 12,547 kl of crude oil was released, and it drove 59 islands in Chungnamdo contaminated with 42 islands of Chunrado by tars as well. With more than a million of volunteers, approximately a half of million responders including the government of Korea, military, police have worked on the spill. As of February 11, 29,283 tonnes of oiled solids and debris was collected. The Korea Coast Guard (KCG) has conducted various types of response activities to recover the site in short period of time with valuable advice from experts visited from all over the world. The oil spill is the largest in South Korea’s history that is more than twice the size of Sea Prince accident in 1995. Currently, the KCG conducts response activities by following the developed response plan that includes activities of evaluation, response information map, determination of best methods and perform as a last step. The 1st and 2nd of survey were conducted with information including geological characteristics, and 3rd survey will be completed in the late of February. Results of survey will deliver current status of polluted areas with degree of pollution at different locations. It will bring us valuable information of how it was recovered in the future.