Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/10
By: Sunrise Huang, Wang Hung-kuo and Y.F. Low
Taipei, May 10 (CNA) An oil spill from a container ship that ran aground on the New Taipei shoreline was completed Tuesday after two months of work, according to the city’s Environmental Protection Department.
All the remaining fuel in the vessel had been removed as of May 5, the department said.
The TS Taipei ran aground March 10 in waters off the city’s Shimen District. Battered by rough seas, the stranded vessel began breaking apart March 24, leaking substantial amounts of oil into the sea, creating an oil slick stretching as far as five kilometers from the stricken vessel.
Over the past two months, 12,446 people have been working on the clean-up work, with 127,039 kilograms of debris having been removed, 377.82 cubic meters of fuel and heavy oil pumped out of the ship, and 59.16 cubic meters of oil cleared from the shoreline and sea surface, according to the department. [FULL STORY]