Chek Jawa check up 19June2010

Is there still oil at Chek Jawa?

Whilst the rest of the Team Seagrass group busied themselves with the nitty gritty of seagrassing, I took the oppurtunity to visit the impacted stretches of beach and mangroves on Chek Jawa’s Northern face fronting the Northern sandbar and seagrass lagoon.

The beach segments did not smell of oil and they were generally clear of oil residue except in small pockets.

One of the most impacted clumps of mangrove was now clear of any signs of crude oil.

This was how another corner of the same mangrove tree looked like on Day 2 of the spill :


There was still some residue on leaves, stems, branches and driftwood....especially in the mangrove section near the boardwalk.

I am surprised that the leaves were still green knowing that this same crude oil was able to dissolve plastic bags such that the bags became soft enough to tear at the slightest pull. Somehow, the leaves were able to resist the corrosive effects of the crude oil.

Part of a mangrove tree root with a layer of crude oil on it

Here is a short clip on oiled leaves spotted :


Crude oil splotches on a piece of decomposing driftwood :

There were no signs of any large numbers of dead animals such as fish or crabs....perhaps the wildboar which frequent the shores ate them up if there were any.....but there were also no signs of any dead wildboar too!...but there were lots of footprints of live ones!

The SandBubbler and Fiddler crabs seemed OK. 

The grey areas on the sand is a layer of residual crude oil. This had the characteristic crude oil smell when the finger-to-nose test was done. Note the tiny sand bubbler burrows and balls of sand near the grey areas.:

The SandBubblers did not seem affected by the oil.(?!) even though the sand bubblers lick the sand for biological material to get their food.

Some of the mangrove trees were flowering and the propagules looked normal (no pinkish tinge commonly associated with pollution). 

There was still quite a bit of trash coated with crude oil and these were slimy to the touch. Some crude oil soaked plastic bags were wrapped around the mangrove roots.

The pic shows some residual crude mixed in the sand...




There is still some cleanup work needed at Chek Jawa. The oil that is still coating the mangrove sections may never be totally removed as most the mangrove roots are difficult to access. Perhaps the continual washing action of the waves is able to get rid of all the crude.

Read about Ria’s check up here:

Crude Oi! residue @ Tanah Merah & ECP - 13June2010

Went biking today up to Tanah Merah to check out whether the coast had finally lost it's crude oil.

Looks like there has been some cleanup action in the narrow drainage canal near the CWRP.
Someone had left his crude oil stained gloves on the footpath. Perhaps he thought he was going to come back for it.


The orange boom was still there but it looks like it is beginning to develop tears and cracks. The boom itself did not seem as if it would be effective against a layer of crude as the waves were easily pushing water over the top.


The absorbent booms were still in the canal and these seemed to collect various bits of crude oil coated debris which got washed all over when the tide returned.

Some parts of the canal walls seemed like someone had scrubbed the wall with a sponge. Indeed there was a sponge like fabric which had been left behind near the canal walkway.


Other places looked like someone had used a high pressure water-jet. This left distinctive sharp edge water scrapping marks.


And some spots showed that the crude that had been on the walls was now on the bottom. Like someone had sprayed something to dissolve the crude and it all flowed down to stain the bottom of the canal. Pity the residue was not mopped up somehow.




The returning tide seemed to release some oil from the absorbent booms with each crashing wave.

Generally, the smell of the crude was much less noticeable than before.

The wide canal near the NeWater plant still showed a sheen at various spots. The pic below shows the canal wall heavily stained earlier by crude oil slick and the movement of the absorbent boom which was still tied across the canal had rubbed some of the stain higher up the wall.


The fish in the canal did not seem affected by the sheen.


The rubbish seen earlier at Site 8 had mostly gone....perhaps brought out by the tides over the week or cleaned up subsequently by NEA contractors.


Moving on to Site 7, there was an accumulation of a pile of yellow trash bags which seemed to contain plastic bottles and crude oil coated flotsam wood. Looks like NEA had organised another cleanup during the week. Fantastic!


Also, all the huge white plastic bags filled with crude oil soaked debris had been cleared from the corner but there was a large stain on the carpark floor on the inside of the fence.


A few fishermen lined up along the seawall fronting the ferry terminal. However, there was still some residual brown gunk floating and this gave off the strong unmistakable smell of the crude oil. The fishermen did not seem concerned with fishing so near the small sliver of brown gunk nor the smell emanating from the gunk.

brown crude residue in the water off the ferry terminal seawall

Here is a videoclip of the residual slick :

Further down at East Coast Parkway, there was the distinctive smell of crude oil in the bays fronting and near the East Coast Sea Sports Club. The sand which had been disturbed by beach users showed the unbearable brownness of being a former crude oil slick now since globuled up by dispersants. Looks like each successive wave action will cover up the brown stuff for someone to kick it up later. This will take a very long time to 'disappear'.




Here is a videoclip of the shore :

There was a nice gentleman windsurfer who had spent a few minutes of his time clearing a stretch of shore of plastic material and styrofoam and put them into 4 neat piles for clearance by the park cleaners. We need more people like this chap!

one of the four piles with the surfer in the background on the oily sand

At Bedok jetty, the beach adjacent to the jetty also showed signs of the brown stuff mixed in the sand.

My nose started to twitch again near the Cable-Ski Park past the Lagoon Hawker Centre. There was more of the brown stuff in the water just outside the Cable-Ski Park bridge.

Heading back up the coast, I came across a lone contract cleaner sweeping along another section of the ECP beach.

Looks like the oil will remain on or 'in' the beach for some time more. Meantime, if you do go into the water....don't swallow! ...and bring a bar of soap to wash off that 'natural' radiating glow!

Tanah Merah (Site 8) - 06June2010

Pics from Site 8 across from the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal



satellite map view


The Tanah Merah shore is (or rather was) a beautiful shore reclaimed from the sea. The seawalls or breakwaters form a lagoon with the shore. Various fish and other organisms hide in the breakwater during the day and appear once the sky gets dark.

However, the lagoons may also encourage a large portion of marine trash to get stuck on the shore. Sadly, nearby coastal communities are reckless and careless being ignorant of the damage they case when they dispose of plastic material into the sea. 'Out of sight is out of mind' for all the contributors.

Local fishermen also leave behind a lot of trash. The pic below shows a mini cyalum stick. This is commonly used by fishermen as an indiator on their fishing rods at night when it has caught something. An important ingredient of this tool is cyanide. Once the plastic tube is compromised, the cyano compounds will flow out as well.

Fishermen also carelessly dispose of their bags and food containers.

If we do not treasure what we have inherited, then what can we give those who come after us?

Tanah Merah (Site 9) - 06June2010

3 kids playing on the oil-stained rocks. Notice the reddish tinge on the rocks. At some point, the kids go barefoot. The kids were well soaked with the water from the lagoon despite the distinct smell of crude oil lingering from the oil soaked rocks. They came with some adults who were off fishing elsewhere in the lagoon.

Tanah Merah (Site 10) - 06June2010

06June2010 - oiled stained trash mixed with unstained trash collected in a corner against a well-stained seawall barrier....waiting for the next high tide to sweep them further along the coast or out to sea.

06June2010- Clumping of residual crude oil in the pool near the SAF Yacht Club. The seawall and surrounding rocks were heavily stained by the crude oil slick over an extended period of time.

06June2010 - residual clumps of crude still on tanah merah shores

Tanah Merah CleanUp - 05June2010

Map

Saturday 05 June2010 - a motley crew of volunteers met, many meeting each other for the first time, to do what they could for a troubled shore...covered with crude oil from over the past weekend. The call for volunteers was made via Facebook merely 24 hours before and 19 volunteers responded all eager to help do their bit to help protect and conserve a quiet secluded Singapore shore long since reclaimed from the sea.

Initial efforts were hampered by rain and lightning and the Team had to wait out the weather for about an hour. Once the thunder had rumbled on and the lightning was distant enough, the team gleefully made their way to shore in the rain which eventually gave way to a light drizzle. A cool strong wind made everyone feel the chill. The plus point of the chilly wind was that the strong smell of

the crude oil on the shore was partly replaced with fresh sea air making the necessary breathing somewhat tolerable.

ML, an NUS grad student uses her umbrella for shelter whilst picking up oil-soiled trash from an oil soaked shore.

The trash bags fluttering in the wind...it took a few moments to get used to the wind's effect on opened trash bags which wanted to fly away from their duty... but the wind was quickly conquered with a few handfuls of readily available trash on the shore. Orientated into the wind at the right angle, one could keep the bag open with one hand whilst throwing in trash with the other.

Focusing on material coated with crude oil such as plastic bottles, plastic bags, styrofoam, and other light material, 85 bags worth of flotsam was collected in about 2 hours from about 500m of shore not forgetting two spades and some soiled absorbent booms left behind by CleanUp contract workers from earlier in the week when the first slick patch hit the Tanah Merah coast.

There was a good amount of plastic bags on the lower shore which were covered with crude oil and these had turned a dark brown. What was unexpected was that these plastic bags tore like water-soaked paper upon being pulled from the sand....disturbing signs that the crude oil was eating away at the plastic slowly dissolving what would normally not degrade for eons. Disturbing because the dissolved plastic would be seeping into the ecosystem. As to where it would all end up is anyone's guess but the food chain would definitely pick some of the material.

It seems that no one had expected a second patch to wash ashore. Despite satellite imagery and patrol boats, no one knew of (or if they knew, was bothered by) the second slick patch ... until it was already almost on the shore.

Why were preventive measures not taken to contain this second slick before it reached the Tanah Merah shore?

Two volunteer RJC students do their bit buffetted by the strong cold wind and rain.

Crude oil soaked plastic bags lying on the lower shore tore readily upon a slight pull indicating that the crude oil was eating away at the plastic bags.....which could only mean that the plastic was being dissolved away into the ecosystem. Not a good thing.

AK(at right), an exchange student from the US helping out at Tanah Merah with a friend, PCF.

Despite the 85 bags (and not forgetting the numerous bags cleared by the contract workers from the National Environment Agency from the far end of the same shore), only a small portion of the visible shoreline was cleaned up. The effects of the CleanUp can be said to have a negligible effect on the overall condition of the shore as the now cake-like sand-tar mixture will likely continue to ooze oil for a very long time to come.

The clip below shows the far end of the same shore the next day on Sunday 06June2010 with accumulations of flotsam, a huge quantity of it plastic. Whilst the natural woody material will biodegrade, the plastic will not and will continue to cover the shore or get eventually pulled out by the tides to journey to other far shores in a neverending repeating tour.

Where does all this plastic come from?

The second slick which affected the Tanah Merah shore was not-prepared for and it stuck to all the available surfaces such as the seawall, sandy shore and the various flotsam on the shore. Whilst the flotsam can be removed, the crude oil which had long since soaked into the sand and formed chocolate-cake like patches looks set to persist for a very long time unless the same is dug out. Meanwhile, a visible oily sheen can be seen at each low tide accumulating in the lagoon formed by the breakwater. Perhaps time and tide will clear the oil away in due course.

Read more about the beach cleanup and related blog posts:-

• http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2010/06/clean-up-on-oily-orphaned-tanah-merah.html
• http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2010/06/tanah-merah-cleanup.html
• http://starryfinds.blogspot.com/2010/06/coastal-clean-up-tanah-merah.html
• http://psychedelic-nature.blogspot.com/2010/06/world-environment-day-coastal-cleanup.html
• http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2010/06/oil-spill-at-changi-east-what-impact-of.html
• http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2010/06/oil-spill-spread-and-clean-up-summary.html
• http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2010/06/oil-spill-what-long-term-effects-on-our.html