Just when you thought that the oil spill dramas couldn’t possibly get worse… Last week there was a massive oil spill in China. A pipeline exploded resulting in an estimated 48,000 gallons of crude spreading over a 165 square mile stretch of the Yellow Sea near the northeastern city of Dalian, one of China’s major ports and strategic oil reserve sites. The explosions at an oil terminal near Dalian set off a fire that raged for 15 hours and took 2,000 firefighters to extinguish.
Officials announced today that the clean-up has concluded and the spill had been contained before any of the oil could reach international waters. The clean-up consisted of spraying oil-dispersant chemicals, planting oil-consuming bacteria and scooping up the thickest part of the oil into plastic barrels. Many of the beaches along Dalian’s long shoreline have been closed indefinitely after winds washed the oil toward land last week. The thick, sticky black substance covered rocks and pebbles on the land, and thin patches of oil could be seen in the water. Fishing in the waters around Dalian has been banned through the end of August. There were no casualties in the explosion and ensuing fire, though one firefighter drowned after being swept from a boat by a wave.
