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S Korea’s worst oil spill nears preserve

South Korean workers using skimmers and containment fences battled on Saturday to clean up the worst oil spill in the country’s history, as part of the slick hit shore near a nature preserve on the west coast.

A Hong Kong-registered tanker began leaking an estimated 10,500 metric tons of crude oil on Friday after a barge carrying a crane slammed into it while the tanker was anchored off Daesan port about 110 km (70 miles) southwest of Seoul.

“A part of the slick reached the shores of Taean and onto the beaches. There are about 1,200 residents helping in the clean-up,” said Cheon Myeong-cheol, a Taean coast guard official.

The region is popular for its beaches and home to a national park. It is also an important rest stop for migratory birds.

There has been no major impact yet on marine life where the first oil reached shore, according to the coast guard but that batch was only a small part of the entire spill.

“We’re installing oil-containment fences to prevent further inflow,” said Song Myeong-dal, head of the maritime ministry’s Information and Policy Monitoring team.

Heavy winds and high waves hurt oil containment efforts on Friday but seas were calmer on Saturday.

The leak is about a third of the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill of crude oil onto Alaskan shores, which was the costliest on record. That clean-up alone from that disaster cost around $2.5 billion while the total costs, including fines and settlement of claims, were an estimated $9.5 billion. reuters

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