Mysterious Oil Appears on Beaches

Clean up crews are back on Bay Area beaches after tarballs were discovered

Terry McSweeney
ABC 7
01/29/2008

PACIFICA, CA -- Clean up crews are back on beaches from San Francisco to Monterey after tarballs were discovered washing ashore Monday.

Officials don't know the source of the oil, but they do have an idea. Experts are speculating that the oil that has been washing ashore, in places like Pacifica, may be lingering oil from the Cosco Busan oil spill. Last November the ship dumped 54,000 gallons into San Francisco Bay and this could be from that.

Until officials figure it out, the results will be given this afternoon, it is cleanup time once again on Bay Area beaches.

The cleanup started Monday. Just from Pacifica State Beach, cleanup crews came away with six five gallon bags of oil and oil covered materials. The oil that is being found is not from a fresh spill. It's weathered, it's old and it's washing ashore from the recent storms.

The oil balls were first discovered at Pacifica. They were also found at Rockaway, San Francisco's Ocean Beach, and at Moss Beach and Carmel. In Monterey County a state park ranger found it and he contacted Fish and Game and the Coast Guard. They sent out a private contracting company, 40 people were on the beach helping the cleanup Monday.

The question is - if it's not new, where did it come from? Fish and Game has sent a sample up their labs in Sacramento and they are going to find out if in fact the speculation is correct that this is from the Cosco Busan oil spill.