Lebanon's Oil Spill May Take Up To One Year To Clean Up - AFP

[hatrack]

Cleanup of a massive oil spill caused by Israeli air strikes on a fuel depot could take up to one year, the environmental group Greenpeace Mediterranean said Tuesday. The watchdog released pictures it said showed oil that had sunk to the seabed, pointing to the urgent need for an immediate and comprehensive assessment of the pollution.

Cleanup could take between six months and a year depending on how quickly an assessment is done and cleanup begins in earnest, Zeina Al Hajj, Greenpeace's Beirut coordinator, told reporters.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 tonnes (11,000-16,500 tons) of fuel oil leaked from an electric power plant bombed south of Beirut by Israel last month.

It polluted about 150 kilometers (93 miles) of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters, officials said. Officials warn that if all the oil from the damaged plant were to seep into the sea, the environmental fallout could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Lebanon_Oil_Spill_Cleanup_May_Take_A_Year_999.html

[MadMaddie]

1. 1 year...? That's a bit optimistic isn't it? How long did it

take to clean up the Exxon Valdeez mess? Even if they get it cleaned up the natural animal life will take years to come back.....

[lapfog_1]

2. The Exxon spill is STILL not cleaned up"

a recent news article says that if you dig on the beach, 2 to 3 inches down you find a layer of toxic oil sludge...

[Nihil]

3. Depends who's doing the claiming.

If it's the oil industry or the American administration,
"clean" simply means "out of sight".

By this standard, the "Lebanese" (=Israeli) spill is already "clean" as
1) it's a few thousand miles away (so isn't seen on the US news)
2) it's only causing a problem to foreign folk (who don't count)
3) there's plenty of "nature" left elsewhere in the world (just).

:-(

[gula]

4. All the reports I have heard/read mention 10 years+. nt