FEELING CONFLICTED? |
TOXIC FUMES & CONFUSION
 Many
surfers I know are feeling conflicted. To help out or not?
It is frustrating to not see any official government attention
focused on Ocean Beach (we know skimmers are out there sucking oil
out of the water, but where?) while large swells and strong currents
making situations worse and bowling-ball sized oil globules are
washing up at Cronkhite, a favorite break for Marin residents.
Yet the hazards of
mopping up oil are real and helping out means you're taking a risk.
One surfer/windsurfer who resides on Treasure Island reports that he
has to keep all his windows closed, as the fumes have been noxious.
THE
DANGERS
According to sources,
some local organizations have issued warnings about the toxicity to
humans as well as animals of these petrochemicals, suggesting it is
unsafe to take direct action. In general, one grassroots
participant said, "For anyone considering going out tomorrow, please
give consideration to this and take all possible precautions to
avoid any direct contact with the oil." Another surfer asked
us, "Do we citizens need masks & breathing apparatus like auto
mechanics and HazMat crews? Why aren't most agency workers
wearing them, even though masks aren't that protective from
petrochemicals"
Although the
2002 Prestige
Oil Spill
of 20 million gallons in the Atlantic was a much significantly
bigger spill than San Francisco's, the 7000 Spanish fishermen
who assisted with clean-up developed
respiratory
damage
within two
years of the incident.
11,000
persons involved with the EXXON-VALDEZ
clean-up who had extended exposure to petrochemicals developed
asthma, depressions, chemical sensitivities and
more."
According to SF Chronicle reports, the Cosco Busan's oil is the
nastiest
around -- it's what's left from oil's refined for gasoline. It
takes a long time to break down.." Read other scary Valdez health
stats
here.
THE
CONFUSION
 In
addition to conflicts and health concerns, there's also confusion.
There's no best central source for information. The media also
sends out mixed messages. Government agencies are overwhelmed.
For example, there's "Mandatory Volunteer Training", but then the SF
Gate articles says
no training
will be provided.
On a different note, we were surprised in our Google searches that
San Francisco had done training to deal with an oil spill crisis.
Did the
2006 Safe Seas Oil Spill Simulation in
San Francisco, led by NOAA
-- prepare our government and non-profit groups' agencies well
enough? Did our officials learn from
Valdez?
Overall, many of us Bay Area residents -- surfers, watersports
enthusiasts, and business/non-profit folks -- whose livelihoods and
enjoyment are tied to our local waters, do understand that more
resources are needed to address the harder-hit areas within the Bay
and areas up north. Ocean Beach is less affected, but no
doubt, oil is coming up on our shores and more help is needed.
So, whatever you do, either directly with clean-up efforts,
writing letters, or indirectly otherwise, rally to do something.
It's up to you to determine what risks you want to take.
Definitely read this Open Letter reprinted below from a good
personal friend who joined the Kill the Spill effort yesterday.
...............................................
November
10, 2007
Dear Friends:
I
am writing
to share a personal story about the oil spill. If you’re inclined to
help, please visit various sites like
Zuna
Surf for information on the grassroots effort to respond
to the oil spill. If you do join, please know that this is not
a government sanctioned activity, and you do so at your own risk. If
you’re available tomorrow (Saturday), the group is meeting at 10am
where
Taraval St.
intersects with
Ocean
Beach.
Please spread the word …
I just returned from a visit to
Ocean
Beach
to join the grassroots cleanup effort. What I experienced there was
deeply disturbing. The air stinks like gasoline. After 1.5 hours
there, my eyes are burning, my throat is sore, my neck is swollen, I
have a headache, and my entire body stinks of gasoline – just from
the air! On the ground, pools of water are covered with oil …
Along the water line, there are lines of oil globs.
The birds that haven’t yet been killed were searching for food in
the oil-soaked sand. I can only imagine the long-term implications
for them.
There was no government cleanup activity whatsoever. I found a
handful of volunteers, picking up the oil globs with their own hands
and scooping them into kitchen garbage bags. The grassroots group of
about 20 people who had been working for 4 hours collected what
looked like 400-500 pounds of sludge – by hand – in kitchen garbage
bags. And as important as this work is, it made no noticeable
difference. The scale of the problem is that large. And, this is one
of the least affected beaches in the region.
I called the Fish and Wildlife service phone number for
volunteering, to see if there was any way I could be part of a
response that might benefit from some government resources (picking
up 58,000 gallons worth of oil globs by hand does not seem like the
most efficient possible way to respond), I listened to a recorded
message that told me I would have to make an appointment to go to
Fairfield for a training session before I could register to
volunteer, and the only way to request an appointment for the
training was to leave a message in a voicemail box that was full and
could not accept messages.
If you expect more from the government, I encourage you to write to
your local representatives and demand more resources and more action
to address this situation.
" - MMU
.....................................
ANOTHER FOLLOW UP EMAIL
RESPONSE FROM "MMU"
"
I
have read conflicting reports about that training session by the
Dept. of Fish & Game and have been trying to decide if it’s worth my
time to go.
On KRON 4, they say it’s a “mandatory training for volunteers” and
imply that it’s a first step to being deployed into some service but
most of the descriptions of the same event are vague [no “Mandatory”
messaging mentioned], so, it sounds like a PR program for the fish
and wildlife program that might be worthless in terms of actually
doing any true clean-up help. And, it seems to me that we need
labor cleaning up the shoreline -- it doesn’t seem like we need
many more volunteers to care for the birds, I haven’t heard about
any massive queues of birds needing care and didn’t see any at
OB yesterday. Why does it take 2 hours to learn “how to
get trained…” ?
I’m a little unsure about going to OB today myself, last night I
could smell gas coming out of my skin and hair and felt like I was
sleeping in a pool of gas, and I’m feeling unwell, I think it is
really hazardous to be exposed to that much petrochemical material
without proper protection. But still want to do something anyway.
“
- MMU
...........................................................
- Source: Zuna Surf Staff
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