Disaster in the Bay

58,000 gallons of oil spilled into the San Francisco Bay Wednesday morning, the biggest spill in the Bay in over a decade. Already the damage is in evidence, with news images of oil slicked birds washed up ashore and now toxic beaches emerging which will take decades if not more to clean up. An editorial in today's San Francisco Chronicle, asks the right questions:
"While we wait for more details about how an experienced bar pilot could have allowed a radar-equipped, 810-foot-long container ship smash into the Bay Bridge, a few questions leap immediately to mind. How could the Coast Guard - which has been working tirelessly to contain the spill - have misjudged the extent so completely? (Up until 9 p.m. on Wednesday, the Coast Guard said only 140 gallons had spilled from the container ship.) How bad will the damage be - and, because oil spills tend to stay toxic for a decades, for how long?"

Needless to say, there are many disturbing aspects to this story, including the slow response of the Coast Guard as well as a "changing story" that appeared on the news between one broadcast and the next; the concerning news that the ship's pilot had an unusually high number of incidents, and had run aground as recently as last year; and the environmental damage that will take years to repair, if it can be.

Someone would have to be seriously off course to crash into the Oakland/Bay Bridge--there is truly no excuse for this, nor the other incidents of this nature that have occurred over the years, and something must be done. How about ship pilots being subject to physical exams before each and every voyage? The safety of the public and our natural resources is at stake.