HEBEI SPIRIT OIL SPILL

SOUTH KOREA2007

María Cristina López Coronel

7 December 2007 A crane barge

owned by Samsung Heavy Industries being towed by a tug collided with the anchored Hong Kong registered crude carrier “Hebei Spirit”

Port of Daesan, Yellow Sea coast, Taean County, Republic of Korea

8 Km of Mallipo Beach

The crane-carrying barge collided with the Hebei Spirit after a wire linking the barge to a tugboat was cut.

Three of five containers were punctured.

12 547 tons of crude oil were released into the sea

RESPONSIBLES 20 December, according to the Korean Coast

Guard, blame is shared between the tug captains, the barge captain (negligence and violating the marine pollution prevention law) and the captain of the Hebei Spirit (violating marine law).

24 June 2008, the lower court in Daejeon found the Samsung group accountable for the incident and acquitted Hebei Spirit Shipping on all criminal charges.

The higher court rejected an appeal by Samsung, which was fined 30 million won and had several employees receiving jail sentences.

IMPACTSAt least 30 beaches were heavily contaminated.

IMPACTS

IMPACTS

IMPACTSThe stretch of coastline is an important habitat for migrating birds. Although most migratory birds had not yet arrived in the region, seagulls, mallard ducks and other sea life were found tarred by the oil.

IMPACTSEconomic impacts on the livelihoods of up to 27000 aquaculture workers. Over 90% of fish farms in the affected area were impacted.

IMPACTS

IMPACTS

MITIGATION MEASURES Developed by the KOREA MARINE

ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT CORPORATION KOEM.

MITIGATION MEASUREMENTS

Offshore Cleanup Operations

Protection of Environmentally Sensitive Areas

Shoreline Cleanup Operations

Collected Wastes Disposal

MITIGATION MEASURES Offshore Cleanup Operations

• Usage of filter belt skimmers, for low viscosity oil.• Disc and drum skimmers for high viscosity oil.• 28 days, 1780 ton of material, 1564 kL oil and 216 ton

solid wastes.

MITIGATION MEASURES Protection of Environmentally Sensitive

Areas

• Garorim Bay• Chonsu Bay• Intake of Taean Power Plant

MITIGATION MEASURES Garorim Bay

- Worldwide famous location of fishing farms of oyster

and sea weed.

- Two lines of oil booms deployed as blockage, in total around of 3000 m of

oil blooms.

- By December 18th the possibility of oil pollution was

declared as rare.

MITIGATION MEASURES Chonsu Bay

- National fishery resources preservation Area. One of

Koreas largest seabird area, 300 types of around 400,000

birds visiting each year.

- Northern Part – Deployment of a five layered oil dam.

- Southern Part – Too width, oil displaced by oil booms to other

collections areas.

MITIGATION MEASURES Taean Power

Plant

- Main power source.

- Blockage of oil booms and deployment of 3 vessels to collect oil.

MITIGATION MEAURES Shoreline Cleanup Operations

- Mallipo Beach, located south east from the incident site. Around 8 km coastline.

- Employed 430 vacuum trucks, 37 skimmers sets, and 2980 m of oil booms.

- Collected a total of 1000 kL of oil with 229 ton of solid wastes.

MITIGATION MEASURES Collected Waste Disposal

- Waste collected offshore and onshore was stored on around 200 temporal storage tanks.

- The KOEM transferred the collected waste to specialized contractors.

MITIGATION MEASURES

LESSONS LEARNT

The development of programs for an effective and efficient volunteer

management should be prioritized by local authorities to take full advantage of

volunteer help. Sudden need of managing huge number of volunteers can hinder the efficiency of the entities

in charge.

LESSONS LEARNT

Local authorities in similar areas prone to any type of disaster should develop

periodically programs to raise awareness on the population. Especially

in coastal areas. Local population has little to no training in the use of

equipment and risk mitigation plans needed.

CONCLUSIONS

A quick and efficient response is vital to control and minimize the impact caused

by the incident, a poor and delayed response can magnify the environmental

impact. Being prepared before an accident determines the success of its

mitigation.

CONCLUSIONS

An efficient planning from the concerned authorities, and the availability of a contingency plan developed by the

companies as a part of an environmental impact study prior to their

operation, is key for the control of the accident.

CONCLUSIONS

The Levels of contamination, remnants of hazardous wastes and other aspects

have to be periodically monitored to guarantee a successful mitigation of the

hazard over time.

THANKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY[1]. Woo-Rack, SUH. (2009). ‘Hebeit Spirit’ Oil Spill Response and Lesson learnt in Republic of Korea. Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation. Presented at 2009 OSR Workshop.

[2]. United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs OCHA (2008). Rapid Environmental Assesment ‘Hebei Spirit’ Oil Spill – Republic of Korea. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/echo/civil_protection/civil/marin/pdfdocs/rok_oil_spill.pdf. Consulted on June 14th, 2014.

[3]. Cheong, So-Min (2012). Community Adaptation to the Hebei-Spirit Oil Spill. Published on Ecology and Society, Volume 17. Available at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol17/iss3/art26/. Consulted on June 14th, 2014

[4]. International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited ITOPF (2009). The Environmental Impact of the Hebei Spirit Oil Spill, Taean, South Korea. Available at http://www.itopf.com/news-and-events/documents/HEBEISPIRIT-Environmentalimpact.pdf. Consulted on June 14th, 2014.

[5]. Sang-Hun, Choe (2007). South Korea Cleans Up Big Oil Spill. Published on The New York Times, December 10th, 2007. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/world/asia/10skorea.html?_r=0. Consulted on June 14th, 2014.