Dalian: China Oil Spill Clean-Up Continues July 22

by Amy Judd | July 22, 2010 at 10:02 am

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An Oil Spill in the Yellow Sea Off Dalian Still Thought to Cover 165 Sq Miles As the Clean-Up Continues

While the clean-up is progressing, officials say the environmental and economic damage of China's oil spill is becoming very apparent and workers are lacking the proper equipment to perform the correct clean-up. The Washington Post reports that firefighters and volunteers are having use chopsticks, garbage bags and their bare hands to try and stop the spread of oil.

Dalian Oil Spill Spreads in Yellow Sea

The spill was caused by the explosion of one or two oil pipelines at the China National Petroleum Corp. last Friday, and it is thought that about 1,500 tons of oil had spilled out in to the Yellow Sea making this the country's largest reported spill.

"I used small wood planks to scoop up the oil and put it into big plastic garbage bags," said Liu Jia, a worker at the Dalian beach resort. "Some of my colleagues used chopsticks to stick in the oil on beach. It works because the oil is quite sticky. And sometimes, we just used our hands to pick up the sand that is covered by oil."

One worker has already been killed during the clean-up and as this company is Asia's biggest oil-and-gas producer by volume it has affected oil shipments and Dalian's seafood industry.

"Dalian's seafood farming and tourism industries have taken critical hits," Greenpeace China said in a statement. It estimated 10,000 shellfish farms have been contaminated.

The full impact of the oil spill on wildlife has not been fully investigated at this time.

Fishing in the region has been banned until the end of August and tourists are staying away due to the mess on the beach and in the water.

The oil company has said that no more oil is gushing in to the sea, but they did not release an updated report on the size of the spill on Thursday. About 40 oil skimming vehicles have been dispatched to stop the spread of oil.

The environmental effect on this region could last for years.

In comparison to the amount of oil released in to the sea, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is thought to have spilled about 94 million to 184 million gallons in to the water.