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CNN Live At Daybreak
Environmental Time Bomb?
Aired November 20, 2002 - 06:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On to Spain and that tanker disaster. Authorities in that country are scrambling to protect the country's northwest coast after a tanker containing millions of gallons of oil broke in two and sank. Some fear it could be an environmental time bomb.
CNN's Al Goodman is in Spain with the latest, standing on the beach in some muck -- a lot of muck.
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, you're right about that. It smells like I'm at a gas station, but actually, as you can see, I'm on a beach. The town is called Caion. It's just south of La Coruna, the major city here in northwestern Spain.
Now, this -- all of this sludge that came up onto the beach was in the first wave of the leak from this tanker, Prestige, and that was last week, and that's already hit this town very hard.
Let's take just -- just take a look. I don't really feel like walking into it. As a matter of fact, we did walk into it earlier this day. It's all over our shoes, and it's very gooey. One expert has said it looks like it has the consistency of chewing gum. In fact, it's a heavier, thicker, more-difficult-to-clean-up oil than crude oil. So, that just compounds the problem.
As you can see, it has just coated the rocks here and is making a huge problem for the cleanup.
Now, as the cleanup goes on, everybody is waiting to see whether the second wave of oil from the tanker that sank on Tuesday -- the Prestige sank about 100 miles off the coast, and at least 10 percent of the cargo is said to have leaked out in the event, and it could be here on the shores by Thursday.
Now, Carol, I just want to say that the assigning of blame has certainly moved to the front burner of this oil spill. The government has said it's going to try to seek damages. That's not going to be easy. The ship had a Bahamas registration. It's owned by a company in Liberia in Africa. It's operated by a company in Greece.
And there's been a row in the last day or two between Spain and the United Kingdom. Spain saying that this boat was headed to Gibraltar, which maybe implies that Gibraltar or the United Kingdom -- of course, the United Kingdom -- Gibraltar is a colony of the United Kingdom -- having some blame. The United Kingdom saying that's not the case at all. So, there's a lot of finger-pointing going on here, and the people caught in the middle, of course, are the local residents and the fishermen who have been out of work for several days now because they can't do anything -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Unbelievable. Al, I want you to tell us again about those containers that are on the bottom of the ocean, and if they may split and do even more damage to the coastline there.
GOODMAN: Well, here's what experts have said, Carol, that -- you know, that a tanker ship like this -- of course, it's a single hull, older tanker. The new legislation says that these ships have to be double-hulled. So that when the Prestige, which got into trouble Wednesday of last week, when it hit something in very stormy conditions, it sprung a leak.
Now, at the bottom of the ocean where it has split apart, there are several containers that were thought to be intact when the ship went down. At least six containers have leaked between the first leak last week and the leak yesterday, and that accounts for maybe 20-25 percent of the oil.
Now, experts are saying that the pressure underneath the water -- it is way deep, a couple of miles down -- is like the equivalent, one expert said, of you stepping on a Coca-Cola or Pepsi can with your foot. You just squash it. That's the kind of pressure that's being exerted on the remaining tanks, and so people are not optimistic. They do believe that more oil will leak out of there -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Just an awful situation. Al Goodman, thanks -- be careful out there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired November 20, 2002 - 06:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: On to Spain and that tanker disaster. Authorities in that country are scrambling to protect the country's northwest coast after a tanker containing millions of gallons of oil broke in two and sank. Some fear it could be an environmental time bomb.
CNN's Al Goodman is in Spain with the latest, standing on the beach in some muck -- a lot of muck.
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, you're right about that. It smells like I'm at a gas station, but actually, as you can see, I'm on a beach. The town is called Caion. It's just south of La Coruna, the major city here in northwestern Spain.
Now, this -- all of this sludge that came up onto the beach was in the first wave of the leak from this tanker, Prestige, and that was last week, and that's already hit this town very hard.
Let's take just -- just take a look. I don't really feel like walking into it. As a matter of fact, we did walk into it earlier this day. It's all over our shoes, and it's very gooey. One expert has said it looks like it has the consistency of chewing gum. In fact, it's a heavier, thicker, more-difficult-to-clean-up oil than crude oil. So, that just compounds the problem.
As you can see, it has just coated the rocks here and is making a huge problem for the cleanup.
Now, as the cleanup goes on, everybody is waiting to see whether the second wave of oil from the tanker that sank on Tuesday -- the Prestige sank about 100 miles off the coast, and at least 10 percent of the cargo is said to have leaked out in the event, and it could be here on the shores by Thursday.
Now, Carol, I just want to say that the assigning of blame has certainly moved to the front burner of this oil spill. The government has said it's going to try to seek damages. That's not going to be easy. The ship had a Bahamas registration. It's owned by a company in Liberia in Africa. It's operated by a company in Greece.
And there's been a row in the last day or two between Spain and the United Kingdom. Spain saying that this boat was headed to Gibraltar, which maybe implies that Gibraltar or the United Kingdom -- of course, the United Kingdom -- Gibraltar is a colony of the United Kingdom -- having some blame. The United Kingdom saying that's not the case at all. So, there's a lot of finger-pointing going on here, and the people caught in the middle, of course, are the local residents and the fishermen who have been out of work for several days now because they can't do anything -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Unbelievable. Al, I want you to tell us again about those containers that are on the bottom of the ocean, and if they may split and do even more damage to the coastline there.
GOODMAN: Well, here's what experts have said, Carol, that -- you know, that a tanker ship like this -- of course, it's a single hull, older tanker. The new legislation says that these ships have to be double-hulled. So that when the Prestige, which got into trouble Wednesday of last week, when it hit something in very stormy conditions, it sprung a leak.
Now, at the bottom of the ocean where it has split apart, there are several containers that were thought to be intact when the ship went down. At least six containers have leaked between the first leak last week and the leak yesterday, and that accounts for maybe 20-25 percent of the oil.
Now, experts are saying that the pressure underneath the water -- it is way deep, a couple of miles down -- is like the equivalent, one expert said, of you stepping on a Coca-Cola or Pepsi can with your foot. You just squash it. That's the kind of pressure that's being exerted on the remaining tanks, and so people are not optimistic. They do believe that more oil will leak out of there -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Just an awful situation. Al Goodman, thanks -- be careful out there.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
