California Oil Spill Crew Is Keeping Mum

Chinese Crew Declines To Be Questioned; Coast Guard Assigns New Incident Commander

(CBS/AP)  The crew of the cargo ship that spilled 58,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay last week is refusing to speak with investigators, a National Transportation Safety Board official said Wednesday.

Meanwhile the Coast Guard, which has been criticized for its handling of the incident, said its commander for the bay region will no longer oversee the response to the spill. Capt. Paul Gugg will take over that job from Capt. William Uberti, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen said Wednesday at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

"Given the concerns in the port and the fact that there's a lot of activity going on there and concerns about what may or may not have happened, we thought it was best at this time to bring in a new incident commander for this particular response," Allen said.

The spill occurred when a cargo ship's hull was sliced open by a collision with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog Nov. 7, an incident Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called an "unbelievable human failure." Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal probe into the spill, and the governor also has promised an investigation.

Members of the Chinese crew have hired lawyers and are now declining to be questioned, said NTSB member Debbie Hersman. Some had spoken with Coast Guard officials earlier, but new criminal and civil investigations have apparently prompted the crew to refuse interviews, she said.

Some crew members were not immediately tested for drugs following the incident, the Coast Guard said Wednesday. They were eventually tested, but outside the legal time limits. Those test results are still pending.

U.S.-based Capt. John Cota, who was piloting the ship, was tested properly for drugs and alcohol, and the results were negative, officials said.

Cota said he immediately reported the presence of oil in the water, but cleanup crews didn't arrive on the scene for nearly 90 minutes. A Coast Guard log places a skimming vessel at the scene in 80 minutes.

Coast Guard officials defended their response as "by the book," but concede mistakes in their communication with the public. Initial reports had the spill at just 140 gallons; the Coast Guard waited hours after learning it was much larger before notifying local officials.

The Coast Guard will review its own response, a process that will include the city of San Francisco, the state of California and others. The aim is to evaluate the Coast Guard's planning and response.

Adm. Allen said such reviews normally wait until after cleanup operations. But because of the severity in this case, he is getting it under way immediately.

Meanwhile, many out-of-town fishermen were packing up and heading home after Schwarzenegger suspended all commercial and sport fishing in areas affected by the spill. The area's highly anticipated commercial season for Dungeness crab was scheduled to start Thursday but has now been postponed for at least 2½ weeks amid health concerns.

[apndrgn]

lets go surfin now, everybodys learnin how...

[brianbwb-2009]

Mexicans are good for our economy and Economists know that. So what the heck, let them be, legal or illegal, they save our economy.
Posted by grazinggoat

They are only good for the top 20% of the economy, but they depress wages for the other 80%.

Overall effect, not good.

[brianbwb-2009]

58,000 gallons? 140 gallons? cannot see an accidental miscommunication there, those numbers don''t even sound remotely alike, one could hear the difference even on an iPhone.

Someone obviously tried to downplay it, and got caught in a lie.

Livelihoods and the health of the general population were jeopadized by this lie and the perp should be held responsible

[tbweb]

Mexicans are good for our economy and Economists know that. So what the heck, let them be, legal or illegal, they save our economy.

Posted by grazinggoat at 12:38 AM : Nov 15, 2007,,,

The United States is a nation of Laws. The United States has an orderly process that allow people from around the World to immigrate to the United States in a legal orderly fashion in which legal immigrants take a test, are issued proper ID, checked for medical diseases and go through a criminal background check as well. Illegal immigrants bypass all the checks and balances in place to insure the safety and security to U.S. Citizens by not allowing terrorist or sick people to enter or nation illegally, in addition, legal immigrants can accomplish the same result as illegal immigrants and don''t undermine U.S. minimum wage Laws by being exploited for cheap labor! A medical examination for new immigrants entering the U.S. is now more important than ever with the new "flesh-eating" bug MRSA on the rise with no cure! Illegals immigrants increasing handle the American food supply in larger and larger numbers and its important to make sure the U.S. food supply is safe. I support legal immigration, your support for Law breaking illegal immigrants is un-American!

[grazinggoat]

the illegal Mexican invaders don''''t wear military uniforms or carry weapons, our guard is down and its not viewed as an invasion in the traditional sense but the results end up being the same, severe impact and damage to the internal U.S. infrastructure, social services, medical services, jobs, wages, no auto or medical insurance, inability to track and record criminal and gang activities because of phony or no ID and the list is long and distinguished!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by tbweb at 10:47 PM : Nov 14, 2007

-tbweb: the 12 million Mexican illegals represent roughly about 4% of a population of 300 millions that are the US population. Since we have a low unemployment official rate of 5-6%, and we suppose we succeed to kick the Mehicanos back south of the borders, we get stuck with an unployment of roughly 1 to 2 %. Do you know what that means, tbweb? This would be catastrophic for the work power. Inflation would hit with wage increase of at least 10,20 up to maybe 50%. Do you know what that means in term of competitivity? Our production costs would increase by 15-25% if not more, and our goods would be less competitive than the Europeans'' and less ''sellable''.

Mexicans are good for our economy and Economists know that. So what the heck, let them be, legal or illegal, they save our economy.

[tbweb]

The Chinese were always interested in what they call the art of fighting without fighting, the tainted food, toys and this Oil spill would subscribe to such a philosophy and so would the 12 million plus illegal Mexican invaders coming across U.S. borders illegally daily, but because the illegal Mexican invaders don''t wear military uniforms or carry weapons, our guard is down and its not viewed as an invasion in the traditional sense but the results end up being the same, severe impact and damage to the internal U.S. infrastructure, social services, medical services, jobs, wages, no auto or medical insurance, inability to track and record criminal and gang activities because of phony or no ID and the list is long and distinguished!

[tiredcrab]

I don''t know about you guys, but it sure seems like the Chinese have declared war on us. Sending tainted products over to us, now poisoning our waters and killing the wildlife. What''s next?

[rushlimpdrug]

spilled 58,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay.

That much oil to run a ship?
Really?
Where is "homeland security"?
Whas the oil to be delivered?
Did the oil have lead, or was it unleaded?
Knowing the chineeze, it was probably leaded.

[scottyusa]

They have lawyers now. It will be proven that the bridge actually hit the ship or the crew will sue the city for not doing something about the fog as to make safe passage beneath the bridge. If they could not blow the fog away somehow then they should have shut down the channel. The city will say that the crew should have used good judgement and anchored somewhere. This could get interesting. My guess is the ship should have elected not to go into the bay until visibility improved.