Operations to remove oil from two stranded ships in Taiwanese waters weeks after they ran aground finally began yesterday, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said.
The EPA said that it started draining the oil tanks on a cargo ship from Niue, which was stranded in waters in the northern part of Penghu County on Feb. 25, as well as the tanks of a Taiwanese vessel belonging to TS Lines Co (德翔海運), which ran aground on a shallow reef about 250m offshore of New Taipei City’s Shimen District (石門) on Thursday last week.
An environmental group discovered a small oil leak from the Niue ship on Monday last week, raising awareness to the potential for an ecological disaster to occur.
Department of Water Quality Director Yeh Chun-hung (葉俊宏) said that bad weather had been preventing authorities from removing the oil from the ships, but yesterday’s clearer weather allowed authorities to begin the long-delayed operations.
The EPA estimated that it would take two days to remove the 145 tonnes of diesel fuel from the Niue ship, and 12 days to remove the 407 tonnes of heavy crude oil from the TS Lines ship, Yeh said.
The EPA said that it would continue to monitor the sea, the vessels and removal operations with a surveillance drone.
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