An Environmental Disaster For The Mediterranean

30 August 2006 - 5:00am

Six weeks after Israel bombed oil storage tanks south of Beirut, spilling between 10,000 and 15,000 tons of heavy fuel oil into the Mediterranean, attempts to clean up the disaster are only beginning to get underway.

"The sand along the public beach in south Beirut is blackened and stained. The sea, normally a rich azure, is a noxious yellowish green. The water reeks of petroleum. All the fish are dead; there is not a single bird in the sky.

These are the scars of the Lebanese oil spill, triggered July 15 when Israeli jets bombed the power station at Jiyeh, 18 miles south of Beirut. Between 10,000 and 15,000 tons of heavy fuel oil spilled into the Mediterranean Sea and began flowing north. After six weeks, the slick has spread an estimated 90 miles north and now could threaten the coastal waters of Syria and Turkey.

And it's getting worse."

Full Story: An environmental disaster emerges on Lebanon coast

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle, August 28, 2006