and personnel were present at the scene approximately 30 minutes later. The Coast Guard was notified at 11:30 p.m. Customs Service became aware of oil in the river and contacted the Marine Safety Office (MSO) of the U.S. Approximately 3 hours after this began, the U.S. On the night of December 4, 1986, as the Amazon Venture began offloading its cargo, oil began spilling from the ship due to three faulty valves. As a result, it was not realized at the time that this new spill had occurred, and only later oil sampling confirmed that the Amazon Venture had been responsible for a leak in New York. At the time, the ship was transporting oil to Consolidated Edison, which had had an oil spill about a week prior that was in the process of being cleaned up. Prior to the ship's arrival in Savannah, the Amazon Venture had been docked at the Port of New York and New Jersey, where, in mid-November 1986, it was responsible for an oil spill involving approximately 35,000 US gallons (130,000 L) of oil. While docking on December 4, the vessel ran aground, with the port-side bilge keel scraping the bottom of the riverbed. At that time, the ship was the only tanker at the port carrying number 6 fuel oil. Five endangered species inhabited the refuge: the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, the red-cockaded woodpecker, the shortnose sturgeon, and the wood stork. Approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) upriver from the terminal was the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area along the river that covered about 26,000 acres (11,000 ha). The terminal was located approximately 25 miles (40 km) upriver from the Atlantic Ocean on the bank of the Savannah River near Savannah, Georgia. The tanker had departed from Pointe-à-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago with a bulk cargo of approximately 13,000,000 US gallons (49,000,000 L) of number 6 fuel oil and was scheduled to unload approximately 3,500,000 US gallons (13,000,000 L) of oil at the port. On December 4, 1986, the ship docked at the Garden City Terminal of the Port of Savannah in the U.S. The ship was registered in Liberia and had a gross tonnage of 31,683 and a length of 700 feet (210 m). The MV Amazon Venture was a tanker that was operated by the Greece-based Calluna Maritime Corporation. federal government and the states of Georgia and South Carolina, while total damage claims from the spill totaled between $7 million and $8 million.īackground Aerial view of the Garden City Terminal of the Port of Savannah, 2012 The company that operated the tanker agreed to pay $1.2 million in damages to the U.S. The spill is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the region, with particular concern regarding the long-term effects of the contamination on the wildlife refuge. Cleanup efforts would continue until being declared officially done on March 13, 1987, with roughly 150,000 US gallons (570,000 L) of oil recovered. However, due to strong tidal currents, containment booms proved ineffective and about a third of the refuge would be contaminated by oil. Officials focused primarily on protecting the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area upriver from the port that included a large amount of marshland and served as a habitat for several endangered species. While initial estimates categorized the accident as a minor spill involving about 2,000 US gallons (7,600 L) of oil, this value quickly rose over the following days, ultimately becoming classified as a major spill. That same day, chemical testing revealed that the ship had been responsible for the spill. The spill, which occurred from December 4 to 6, 1986, was caused by three defective valves in the piping system of the oil tanker MV Amazon Venture, which leaked approximately 500,000 US gallons (1,900,000 liters roughly 1,800 metric tons or 2,000 short tons) of fuel oil into the river.Īuthorities at the port were made aware of oil in the river approximately three hours after the ship began offloading its oil, but due to difficulties in locating the source of the spill, the ship was allowed to continue offloading until it completed on December 6. The Amazon Venture oil spill occurred at the port of Savannah on the Savannah River in the U.S. 1986 environmental disaster in Georgia, US
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