|
US Coastguard deploys environmental warriors to Gulf
Planet Ark
7th March 2003
ABOARD US COASTGUARD CUTTER WALNUT, Manama U.S. Coastguard forces deployed in the Gulf are preparing for environmental disaster if Iraq responds to any U.S.-led war by deliberately releasing oil into the sea.
"We're here to respond to oil spills that may be the result of environmental terrorism," says Lieutenant Commander James Hanzalik from Biloxi, Mississippi.
Hanzalik belongs to the Coastguard's Strike Force, which responds to chemical and environmental emergencies.
The Strike Force was most recently called in to help manage hazardous debris after the space shuttle Columbia crashed last month, and was also called in during the anthrax scares in Florida and Washington following the September 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on the United States.
"This is the first time in my knowledge that there's been an effort to respond to environmental terrorism due to oil spills during a war," Hanzalik told Reuters aboard the U.S. Coastguard Cutter Walnut in port in Manama, Bahrain.
The Walnut, based in Hawaii, is part of a range of Navy and Coastguard vessels which could be used to contain any oil spill if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein decided to turn on the taps, as Washington fears he may in the event of a war.
Chief petty officer Mike Jolly, another member of the Strike Force, said Iraq released millions of gallons of oil during the Gulf War in 1991 and this time U.S. forces were planning in advance how they will respond.
"We know we're not going to be able to contain it all, no one could, but I think we will be able to contain a good majority of it and minimise the impact," said Jolly, who is from Reidsville, North Carolina.
Allied forces said during the Gulf War that Iraq caused a huge oil slick by dumping some 11 million barrels of crude from storage tanks and ships at Kuwait's Mina al-Ahmadi terminal.
The slick polluted miles of sandy beaches on Saudi Arabia's northeast coast. A second slick also oozed from Iraq's Mina al-Bakr terminal near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
|
