Around Bay Area, outrage at delayed response to

[cboy4]

oil spill grows.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/10/MNDRT9K8D.DTL&tsp=1

Coast Guard Admits Errors

(11-09) 15:28 PST San Francisco - -- High-ranking California politicians and Bay Area residents angry about their oil-splattered beaches demanded answers Friday to why the Coast Guard took so long to notify the public of this week's huge ship-fuel spill and how the sludgy mess was allowed to spread so far.

Coast Guard officials acknowledged they had erred in waiting more than four hours on Wednesday to issue an advisory that 58,000 gallons - not just 140 - had spewed into the water after a ship rammed the base of a Bay Bridge tower, but they insisted their response was appropriate.

California's two U.S. senators, San Francisco's congresswoman, a host of state legislators and residents up and down the damaged coastline were not buying it.

"Something went terribly wrong," Sen. Barbara Boxer told The Chronicle when asked what she thought of the disaster response. "It was not handled the way it has to be handled.


The surface of the water in the Berkeley marina is coated in oil.


Ducks covered in oil sit in the sun on Friday to try to warm up on the east side of Cesar Chavez Park.



Confusion Over Ship's Path

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/10/MN77T9Q3V.DTL

Attorney said pilot told Coast Guard his course was OK

Shortly before the container ship that spilled 58,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay hit a Bay Bridge tower, the Coast Guard warned the pilot in charge of the ship about his course - but the pilot immediately radioed back that the ship's instruments showed he was on the correct heading, the pilot's attorney said Friday.

The Vessel Traffic Service, a Coast Guard facility on Yerba Buena Island that monitors all commercial ship traffic on the bay, told pilot John Cota by radio as the container ship Cosco Busan approached the bridge Wednesday morning that "your heading is (compass) bearing 235; what are your intentions?" attorney John Meadows said.

Meadows said Cota's navigation aids showed he was on a different heading, so he told the Vessel Traffic Service dispatcher, "I'm heading directly for the center of the span," Meadows said.

The distance between the two towers is 2,210 feet, and the ship is 131 feet wide. It was foggy; the National Weather Service had issued a dense fog advisory for the bay.