Monday, June 28, 2010
ECP Cable-Ski park residual oil sheen 27June2010
Looks like there is still residual oil sheen visible (and smellable) at certain parts of the East Coast Parkway.
The clip shows a residual oil sheen at the bay just outside of the Cable-Ski park. This seems to have been in residence for quite a long time now. The smell is much less apparent but it is still present in the air.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Kallang Riverside megatrash 27June2010
Looks like the recent floods pushed out a lot of trash into the Kallang Basin...but where will a lot of it end up?
Pictures taken Sunday 27June 2010 morning.
A trash bin cover...
Some dead rats...
and then another one...
There were quite a few dead fish too!
plastic bottles and trash as far as the eye could see...
A wallet....with some ID cards (hopefully the owner wasn't also washed away in the floods).
and more dead fish...
...and more dead fish (all tilapia sp.)
The PUB contract cleaners were out in their blue trash tub boats clearing flotsam from the deeper parts of the reservoir.
Singapore should do more to prevent any 'accidental' contribution to the Trash vortexes.
Do you want to do something about marine litter?
Learn about what you can do here :
http://coastalcleanup.nus.edu.sg/
http://coastalcleanup.wordpress.com/
Links about the trash vortexes:-
http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2010/06/cartonist-explains-the-pacific-garbage-patch-with-talking-sealife.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100302-new-ocean-trash-garbage-patch/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8534052.stm
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html
http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/trashing-our-oceans/ocean_pollution_animation
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/today-on-planet-100-the-pacific-trash-vortex-explained-video.php
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/pacific-trash-vortex-signifies-future-of-oceans.php
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/great_pacific_garbage_patch.php
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914145,00.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7450769/The-Biggest-Dump-in-the-World.html
Sunday, June 20, 2010
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.
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 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.
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:
Sunday, June 13, 2010
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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