Years to recover from South Korea spill: environmentalists

Environmentalists warned Tuesday that a scenic coastal region could take years to recover from South Korea's worst oil spill, as over 19,000 people worked to contain or clean up the slick.
The home affairs ministry declared the area a disaster zone, making residents eligible for quick help and greater compensation for the slick, caused by Friday's crude oil spillage from a holed supertanker. President Roh Moo-Hyun visited the scene after instructing his cabinet to provide the assistance to residents. He spoke with soldiers as well as volunteers, thousands of whom are mopping up the sludge with buckets and spades.
The government, under fire for what is seen as an inadequate response to the spillage, has rushed more troops and police to Taean county 110 kilometres (69 miles) south-west of Seoul.
Some 150 kilometres (94 miles) of coastline had been hit by the slick, said Sung Nam-Cheon, an official at the county's disaster centre. Five planes and 220 ships were also deployed against the slick, which Sung said had coated 212 marine farms and 15 bathing beaches - an area of 5,640 hectares (13,931 acres). A slick still out at sea stretches 70 kilometres.
"Today, the oil slick is spreading slowly due to improved weather conditions. But we are desperate to stop the expansion," Sung said. "In case of strong winds again, it will quickly flow towards the coast."
About 10,500 tons of crude leaked into the Yellow Sea when a drifting barge carrying a construction crane smashed into the anchored 147,000-ton Hong Kong-registered Hebei Spirit and holed it in three places. Environmentalists say the disaster will deal a huge blow to a region popular with beachgoers and home to oyster and abalone farms.
"The ecosystem has been devastated at coastal areas in Taean," said Chohan Hye-Jin, spokeswoman for the Korean Federation for the Environmental Movement. "We simply don't know how to cope with it as the oil is still spreading." She said more work was needed to gauge the impact but noted that oil sludge was still being found on the seabed off the southern port of Yeosu, after the country's previous worst oil spill in 1995.
"The damage is so immense that we can hardly predict how long it will take to recover," said Lee Jae-Hak of the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute. "It will take tens of years, though not hundreds of years, to return the maritime ecosystem to normal."
Sung said workers had stepped up efforts to set up booms at the mouth of Garorim Bay, which has marine farms covering 4,823 hectares. Salvage workers were also trying to stop the slick from spreading into a bay near Anmyeon island, a major fish farm area and resting place for migratory birds. Elsewhere, it was too late. "My mind is darker than this oil on the beach. I don't know where to earn my living from now on," said sea farmer Kim Pil-Moon in Padori village.
Samsung Heavy Industries, which operated the barge and tug, has accepted basic responsibility for the incident, a spokesman said Monday. The tanker is owned by Hebei Shipping Co, a Hong Kong corporation, and managed by British firm V.Ships.sung.