Black day for Samet

[Seashore]

Just awful! I hope they are able to clean it up before too much damage is done. Such a shame.

[Timwin]

I'm no oil cleanup expert but having been a wildlife biologist in a previous life, I worked with many. My guess is that the damage has already been done and it will be years (i.e., decade or longer) before those beaches recover. The Thais working on this need to save losing any more face and call in foreign help ASAP from cleanup experts who actually know what they are doing before it gets any worse.

The evaporation rate is much much higher due to higher temperature and higher winds spreading the oil faster than for example in Alaska so it will not take very long. Some even say the use of Coreexit in BP spill made the spill even more toxic to the environment than the oil alone.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Timwin

[chooka]

BUCKETS!? They're going to clean up the spill with BUCKETS!?

Better than spoons, inn'it?

But seriously, what else are you going to use taking into consideration that there is no hi-tech equipment available on the island?

Doesn't the oil company (PTT) have such equipment 24/7 in anticipation of such an incident. I thought companies had teams and equipment ready to swing into action at the drop of a hat. If Thailand only has buckets then why don't they ask for help from others that actually do have the equipment and are ready to roll.

[deecee10]

Some terrible looking images.

Don't think the authorities have any idea how serious this is for the environment as well as for their beloved tourist income.

Marine life will take years to recover.

In addition the slick is not going to just sit there and wait to be cleaned up. It's going to spread to other areas.

This is hardly the way to attract 'high end' tourists or any other kind for that matter. Tourism will be set back several months at least.

There's no way of talking down this disaster.

[belg]

maybe they can use the money from PTT

to sponsor the green solar energy fund

555

if they get any ...

[GreenSnapper]

They have highly qualified experts, paid by tourist double pricing entry fees, who will clean this up in 3 days.

Do you really have any serious doubt about that?

[CockneyGit]

Has anyone said that the leaking pipe has actually stopped..??

[Timwin]

Doesn't the oil company (PTT) have such equipment 24/7 in anticipation of such an incident. I thought companies had teams and equipment ready to swing into action at the drop of a hat. If Thailand only has buckets then why don't they ask for help from others that actually do have the equipment and are ready to roll.

And that would shut down their operations. It is like asking another airport to send their fire brigade to another airport due to accident, resulting in shutting down both airports. Probably they could send some help but not that much.

[kannot]

BUCKETS!? They're going to clean up the spill with BUCKETS!?

Better than spoons, inn'it?

But seriously, what else are you going to use taking into consideration that there is no hi-tech equipment available on the island?

They could use Rice to soak it all up, this would fix two problems at once??

[hookedondhamma]

"The spill is definitely having an impact on the environment, but we have not detected any deaths of marine animals yet," he said.

Is there any marine life left in Thailand apart from the aquariums in the shopping malls and zoos?

lol Chooka you go hard. Haven't laughed so much in a while :-)

But I do hope things turn out for the better. It seems like all over the world things are going off the deep end :-/

[Sayonarax]

The best thing for soaking up oil slicks is a bag of human hair.

[webfact]

According to this Gistda image it doesn't look good and the oil spill seems to be moving to the mainland

---------



Source: http://www.gistda.or.th/gistda_n/index.php/component/content/article/1657

[sandman00927]

I am not trying to be sarcastic but with all of the chemical and oil companies in Rayong and Mataput wasnt there a "disaster plan" already to go or was the plan to wait until it is a disaster and then plan......buy more buckets and pray for a southernly wind so its out of sight.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[1Ping1]

Tragic at the very least. I would lobby that all involved stop playing the blame game and call in for help on a global scale. Once it hits the shoreline you are screwed. Since it already has started to, all we can hope for is that they are not understating the amount of oil in the water. If they are, and they could be by a magnitude of 10 to 100 the end to this is no where near, months to years as one correctly stated. Many, many more beaches, islands could and will be destroyed. All you have to do is look at what happens in other countries, as in the US in Alaska years ago, (oil still there by the way) and the Gulf just several years ago.(oil still there also) Once in the sand and on the beach the sad reality is that sand literally has to be removed to remove oil. Meanwhile, all marine life living in these areas is gone for years to come. So very sad as such a beautiful area.

[catweazle]

Looks like Thailand gonna run out of buckets very soon... What I don't understand is why not the oil companies themselves do the cleanup, respectively why oil companies (worldwide) are allowed to operate without having set up, or each oil company chipping in to another separate disaster response and rescue company or something like that. How about tougher safety regulations (sorry, forgot - this is Thailand....). But isn't it always the same scheme?

Oil cluster f#)kups: Oil company, creates the mess - others have to clean it up, like in this instance Navy, national park and government, volunteers, etc. while the oil company gets a slap on the wrist along with a laughable fine.

War cluster f##)kups: Western countries invade other, what they call "less civilized", countries they want to "liberate" so these people (the few ones who survive) can have "democracy" and in the process bomb that country to bits, killing thousands, up to millions civilians - Red Cross and other, similar foundations along with volunteers move in to clean up the mess. Not talking about the fortunes made by reconstruction, done by the company owners and cronies who gave the ok for the invasion in the first place.

Economy and money cluster f##)kups: The banks and their henchman ruin the world economy and everyone's livelyhood by creating money out of thin air, giving loans to people they know they'll never be able to pay it back, create toxic "investment packages" no one knows what they contain and throw them on the market, selling them to their best customers while betting against these papers in the same moment, etc. etc. - and in the end, these banks are bailed out with tax payers money and pushing whole countries into decade long recessions or bankrupcy, while the managers get a pay rise and bonuses.

And on and on it goes....

btw - where the F are Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace, etc. now? Where is the public, nationwide outcry, the demonstrations against PTT (quote "this is our 4th spill so far").

One member in another thread related to this spill asked when we mention UFOs now while free and renewable energy was brought up by me (what in his view are conspiracy theories)... Well, all I can say is that if there are any (UFOs and aliens) with an advanced mindset and advanced technology, I don't think they would ever have the urge to neither contact, nor meet or mingle with, nor rescue us humans who obviously are speeding along a suicidal one way road straight towards the wall of self destruction. I hope that at least earth will survive and recover. As for us (humans) I have no hope that we will make it.

Edited July 30, 2013 by catweazle

[Salapoo]

Simple. Just get all the tug boats to turn their propellers towards Cambodia.

Where's that Minister for Science and Technology when you need him.

[DocN]

It has been wayyyyyyyyy to long, since the last crisis for tourism.

And I am sure, they will find a way to profoundly f$#% up this one.

...oh...and of course we are not even talking about the long term effects, like dead corals, empty (ex-) reefs, lumps of tar on the beaches...

[joka]

I can't wait until they start building those nuclear reactors.

[Equalizer]

50,000 litres of crude oil. Hmmmm Do these people think we have no brains? You can clearly see on the satalite image the slick is larger than the whole island of Koh Samed. This would take hundreds of thousands of liters of crude oil. PTT will not pay any compensation. The islanders will suffer, however it is close season which is the only positive thing i can think of in this whole mess.

[sirchai]

Scary photos in an underdeveloped country. Went to this beautiful island the first time around 20 years ago. It was a paradise. Then it developed to a mass tourist place and now this.

A sad world we're living in......

[mistephenso]

It's going to take longer than 15 days to clean up if they only use paper towels of this size...!

Time to start asking for some outside help Thailand!?

[tezzainthailand]

Typical Thai reaction, they're only worried about the money that will be lost.

They are also worried that it might reach Pattaya Beach and the impact it will have on the oil slik. Plans are being made to protect the oil slik.....

If it reached Pattaya Beach would anybody notice the difference?

[hubahuba]

Typical Thai reaction, they're only worried about the money that will be lost.

They are also worried that it might reach Pattaya Beach and the impact it will have on the oil slik. Plans are being made to protect the oil slik.....

I didn't know oil slicks were endangered..HaHaHa

[webfact]

PTTGC confident of clearing oil spill in Phrao Bay within two days, to reopen for tourism in seven days /MCOT

[sandrabbit]

Never nice to see, but at least the government has plenty of funds in the kitty to spend on the clean-up... I mean they've been charging foreigners 400 baht to get into the 'national marine park' for how many years?

200 baht but I never pay as it goes straight into their pockets

[britinthai]

I used to travel there a lot; I even brought land just off of Bang Pai, but over a period of three years, Kho Samed has turned into a shithole and full of Russians, and of course the jet-ski mafia has also developed mirroring the Pattaya scamming methods. I have not been there for two years, but I can only assume it has got worse and from looking at the photo of the beach apart from the obvious oil spill, the background of the beach is full of crap. There is an open aquarium on the island, and I hope they had the sense to protect that area, however from what was first reported when PTT and authorities say the oil spill MAY reach land, when what they really mean it will, which blends with the typical Thai culture of unless there is money in it for me, I don't give a flying fart what happens and will procrastinate action until their pockets are lined, which seems to be the case here.

Edited July 30, 2013 by britinthai

[sandrabbit]

Looks like Thailand gonna run out of buckets very soon... What I don't understand is why not the oil companies themselves do the cleanup, respectively why oil companies (worldwide) are allowed to operate without having set up, or each oil company chipping in to another separate disaster response and rescue company or something like that. How about tougher safety regulations (sorry, forgot - this is Thailand....). But isn't it always the same scheme?

Oil cluster f#)kups: Oil company, creates the mess - others have to clean it up, like in this instance Navy, national park and government, volunteers, etc. while the oil company gets a slap on the wrist along with a laughable fine.

War cluster f##)kups: Western countries invade other, what they call "less civilized", countries they want to "liberate" so these people (the few ones who survive) can have "democracy" and in the process bomb that country to bits, killing thousands, up to millions civilians - Red Cross and other, similar foundations along with volunteers move in to clean up the mess. Not talking about the fortunes made by reconstruction, done by the company owners and cronies who gave the ok for the invasion in the first place.

Economy and money cluster f##)kups: The banks and their henchman ruin the world economy and everyone's livelyhood by creating money out of thin air, giving loans to people they know they'll never be able to pay it back, create toxic "investment packages" no one knows what they contain and throw them on the market, selling them to their best customers while betting against these papers in the same moment, etc. etc. - and in the end, these banks are bailed out with tax payers money and pushing whole countries into decade long recessions or bankrupcy, while the managers get a pay rise and bonuses.

And on and on it goes....

btw - where the F are Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace, etc. now? Where is the public, nationwide outcry, the demonstrations against PTT (quote "this is our 4th spill so far").

One member in another thread related to this spill asked when we mention UFOs now while free and renewable energy was brought up by me (what in his view are conspiracy theories)... Well, all I can say is that if there are any (UFOs and aliens) with an advanced mindset and advanced technology, I don't think they would ever have the urge to neither contact, nor meet or mingle with, nor rescue us humans who obviously are speeding along a suicidal one way road straight towards the wall of self destruction. I hope that at least earth will survive and recover. As for us (humans) I have no hope that we will make it.

wow, one hell of a soap box. I'd hate to see you go off on a tangent.

p.s. there were about 600 oil company 'volunteers' there yesterday with about 400 army conscripts.

[jamhar]

I came across the channel to the mainland this morning. I can say that the channel between Koh Somet is clear. Did not see a single instance of oil. Not even any oily film. This is much better than yesterday when i could clearly see oil and oil film starting from just past the breakwater at Ban Phe. The boys on the boats manning the boom really did their jobs! My hats off to them!

The beaches on the east side still remain clear with no trace of oil, oily film or even the hint of a petroleum smell. I asked some of the brit ladies returning home on todays boat if they had seen or heard of any news regarding the oil spill and they looked shocked. They had not heard or noticed a thing. So the east side remains pristine or as pristine as the east side can be

With the channel clear i'm hoping the worst is behind us, and the clean up crew can get the north and west side of the island back on its feet ASAP.

I'll update tonight if I make the last boat back to the island.

[indyuk]

Thinking aloud....some issues not reported...Is this an SBM event or a pipeline event?

Where is the 'Oil Spill Recovery / Clean Up contractor that is nominated in the original Envoronmental Impact Statement? Future; The most critical concern is the integrity of the Single Bouy Mooring (SBM) and an urgent revision of operating procedures for it. (I understand that this is not the first spill from this SBM instalation).

Who is the SBM's owner operator?

Was the Oil Tanker Damaged.

Who is the owner or chartered operator the Tanker that was delivering oil at the time of the oil spill.

If the SBM has to be replaced can it be installed further offshore? (8 kilometers from the beach is probably too close).

Edited July 30, 2013 by indyuk

[SABloke]

BUCKETS!? They're going to clean up the spill with BUCKETS!?

They cleaned up the beaches from Deepwater Horizon using buckets - I thought people would be pleased that the "ignorant" Thais were copying the "intelligent" Westerners

Edited July 30, 2013 by SABloke