NEWSWEEK: What progress is being made in the cleanup? Sejal Choksi: Over the weekend we had 4,000 to 5,000 people offering to help out. Then we had these [government] agencies saying, “Don’t come out to the beaches. You will get in the way. You aren’t trained to handle hazardous materials or injured wildlife.” So we ended up with people coming out to their favorite beaches anyway, trying to do what they could. The park officials and police would come, and some would cite people, or some would turn a blind eye, because they could see the work wasn’t getting done. Baykeeper has been asking for volunteer training for our members, and we didn’t get it until today. Hopefully, it’s not too late to get people out there to make a difference.

Your organization sent out a boat shortly after the spill to assess the damage. What did you find? We were out there looking at the damage and able to identify areas where no cleanups were happening, but there was lots of oil. We called a hotline [set up by the shipping company] to report these areas, and the hotline number sent us to the claims department, and the poor woman said, “I have no idea what to do. I have been getting these calls of yours. All I can do is fill out a claim form, and it takes two weeks to get a cleanup [vessel].” They finally did set up a real hotline, but that was four days later. It’s been kind of a mess.

How important was underestimating the volume of the spill? This happened at 8:30 a.m., but [the Coast Guard] said 140 gallons and people said, “That’s too bad.” There was no emergency response triggered. That didn’t happen for another 12 or 13 hours. Immediately public health and city officials around the bay should have activated. If there had been a timely response, the oil would have been contained in a small area. This bunker fuel is the heaviest, dirtiest fuel—it’s the dregs left over from the refining process. It’s thick and tarry, with a consistency like chewing gum. This is some bad stuff. Within 13 or 14 hours this has been able to spread outside the Golden Gate and foul oceanside beaches as well.

The powerful currents in San Francisco Bay have made this spill even worse. The spill occurred at high tide and then was flushed out of the bay over the next 12 to 23 hours. Then oil came back in with the tide, covering the Marin shoreline.

A pristine national seashore north of San Francisco. Right.

You are describing failure at many levels. The investigation needs to be completed. We still don’t have an incident report or the Coast Guard records. There seems to be a lot of backtracking, The same pilot has been cited for several different mishaps. Maybe that was a warning sign.

What is the long-lasting ecological impact? It’s been devastating for the environment. It’s hard to predict how long it will last. Bunker fuel contains polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), which are extremely toxic. It doesn’t degrade easily and can have carcinogenic impacts and delay the development of birds and other marine life. So far, more than 200 birds [have been] picked up and another 135 have been found dead. When the oil ends up covering birds, they lose thermal protection, move to the shoreline and try to preen, and then they end up ingesting a lot of oil. Another problem is that their food sources can get covered by oil. We are looking at PAH levels being elevated in the bay for the next decade or two. In terms of the fuel, it could be around for the next couple of years.

Are you sure the impact will last for years? That seems like an awfully long time. What we have heard from cleanup and response crews is that the sheens on top of the water won’t be cleaned up by skimmers.

They can only get this thick, gunky stuff? Right. The oil has to be dispersed throughout the Bay and ocean; then it will get pushed up to the shoreline. I don’t think we will be able to get this cleaned up within the next few months. And if you compare it to a spill of diesel fuel from a pipeline into the Suisun Marsh [about 35 miles northeast of San Francisco] in 2004, we are still finding traces of the fuel in the marsh three years later.