North Cape oil spill

Tug Scandia and tank barge North Cape January 20, 1996

The North Cape Oil Spill occurred on January 19, 1996 when the tank barge North Cape and the tug Scandia grounded on Moonstone Beach 41°22′11″N 71°34′41″W / 41.369712°N 71.578100°W / 41.369712; -71.578100 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island after the tug caught fire in its engine room during a winter storm. An estimated 828,000 gallons of home heating oil was spilled.^[1] Oil spread throughout a large area of Block Island Sound, including Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge, resulting in the closure of a 250-square-mile (650 km²) area of the Sound for fishing. Hundreds of oiled birds were recovered in the weeks following the spill and large numbers of dead lobsters, surf clams and sea stars were found on area beaches. Following the spill, considerable work was undertaken by US federal and Rhode Island state governments to clean up the spill and restore lost fishery stocks and coastal marine habitat.^[2] The North Cape oil spill is considered a significant legal precedent in that it was the first major oil spill after the passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 resulting from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska on March 24, 1989.

References

1. ^ "North Cape Oil Spill". http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/northeast/north_cape/. Retrieved 27-April-2009. 
2. ^ "North Cape Oil Spill Case Documents". General Counsel for Natural Resources, Northeast Region, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/northeast/north_cape/admin.html. Retrieved 27 April 2009.