Oil spill off Taiwan’s north coast sparks pollution fears

TAIPEI—A cargo ship off New Taipei City’s Shihmen district broke apart on Friday early morning, releasing a large amount of heavy oil into the sea.

More than 1.5km away from the ship, people noticed that rocks along the coast were covered in layers of black oil.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) and the owner of the vessel T.S. Lines Co. have sent teams to clean the water, and Premier Simon Chang also visited the site in the afternoon.

The Fisheries Agency (FA) urged fishermen to stay alert, since several containers have dropped into the sea, and may crash into passing vessels.

Chief of the EPA Department of Water Quality Protection Yeh Jiunn-hung said to local media this afternoon, the ship contains not only 242 tons of heavy oil, but also toxic materials.

If the containers were handled carelessly, it could result in severe environmental damage, stressed Yeh.

Among the 617 containers, three drifted to the coast. Nine out of the remaining containers on the ship carried highly dangerous substances, such as 20 tons of potassium chlorate, 18.2 tons of toluene, 19.5 tons of lipids, 8.5 tons of corrosive cleaning agents and six tons of combustible lubricants.

According to FA officials, heavy oil has been spotted along the coast, and there was an unpleasant odor in the sea breeze.

The engines of the ship, T.S. Taipei, stopped running on March 10. Cracks began appearing on the ship on Thursday, before it split in two.

Officials said that compared to Thursday, the heavy oil had spread nearly five times farther.

T.S. Lines Co. spokesman Huang Jen-chieh said the company had deployed more staff to place oil sorbents and booms to help control the spread of the spill. For the missing containers, Huang said they would track their location and notify the Maritime and Port Bureau to remind nearby fishing boats to avoid the floating containers when at sea.

The spokesman said with waves smashing into the fractured ship, they expect the side containing the ship’s bridge will soon tip over.

Contaminated fish

Cheng Sha-yen, professor at the Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science at National Taiwan Ocean University, said it might take another four or five years for the toxic spill from the ship to be removed.

To clean away 100 tons of heavy oil needs around two or three years; this boat contains 242 tons, said the professor.

More than 80 per cent of seafood consumed in the Greater Taipei area derives from the affected location. Consumers have no way of knowing whether their seafood has been contaminated because the chemicals accumulate in the fishes’ bodies, remarked Cheng.