[Paumon]

On west coast near Alaska panhandle and Haida Gwaii - a crippled container ship drifting in stormy seas carrying hundreds of tonnes of deisel, oil, chemicals, minerals. It's a Russian container ship on its way from Washington state where it picked up its cargo, it was bound back towards Russia when the ship lost power on Thursday night and started drifting. It's presently off the west coast of the Haida Gwaii islands and is drifting in high winds and stormy seas in the Pacific going in a north-easterly direction towards the islands and the Alaska panhandle.

They're saying on the news that the locals are estimating it will be less than 4 hours before the ship crashes ashore. If that happens it will be a worst case scenario for the west coast.

Please say some prayers for the north west coast and hope that other ships and Coast Guard can get to it in time to save the crew and try to tow it to a safe place before it crashes on rocks and dumps its containers of chemicals, deisel and oil.

 

[handymama]

Oh no, this is terrible! Definitely praying.

 

[Awnry Abe]

Amazing the things they ship out of Washington state these days.

 

[PrettyPaisley]

Oh just toss those chemicals in with all the nuclear fallout from Fukushima. No one will ever know it's there. Literally. No one.

 

[Paumon]

An update: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/me...diesel+adrift+Haida+Gwaii/10299159/story.html

 

[nchobbyfarm]

Thanks for the update. Hopefully they will have success securing the ship.

 

[poppy]

No worry. I heard Obama is going to appoint a drifting ship czar pronto and the guy used to be a porn star.

 

[Harry Chickpea]

Poppy, that is evil and I love it. Post of the day award.

 

[DAVID In Wisconsin]

No worry. I heard Obama is going to appoint a drifting ship czar pronto and the guy used to be a porn star.

Sounds like he is better qualified than most of owebama's appointees

 

[JeffreyD]

Anyone read the comments? Their hysterical! !! Go Canada! !!!

 

[Sanza]

I haven't read the article yet.Being from Alberta all I can say is:

BC will try to blame it on the northern gateway pipeline.

 

[Fennick]

I haven't read the article yet.Being from Alberta all I can say is:

BC will try to blame it on the northern gateway pipeline.

Can you please explain what that's about? What's the connection between the pipeline and a disabled Russian cargo ship on it's way back to Russia?

 

[farmerDale]

Can you please explain what that's about? What's the connection between the pipeline and a disabled Russian cargo ship on it's way back to Russia?

British Columbia has a very large contingent of the tree hugging sort. They oppose Canada building a pipeline across their province, because they are scared of their own shadows, and especially scared of a theoretical oil spill.

What is being talked about now, is that these anti development folks, will yodel about this boat and say the same thing could happen to the oiltankers that pick up oil in the future.

Pretty shaky connection, but it is how many of these folks work. They think they have a corner on the "pristine" market. Like they are the only ones with wilderness. They are anti anything that may include "big oil." It is basically the socialist mindset, with an environmentalist twist.

Like sending the oil on trains is safer. Like an oil pipeline with its relatively small foot print somehow wrecks their lives.

And then there are the natives and the issues that come with their "land claims".

It is a mess. This supposed "disaster", which it is NOT, will give some of these folks all the fodder they need to protest the pipeline which would create thousands of jobs, add billion of wealth to the economy. Heck to it that it would be the safest way to start to ship oil from the country with debatably the worlds largest reserves of oil.

They hate the oil sands of Saskatchewan and Alberta, despite the operations there being the largest oil spill clean up job in the history of the world.

Just a bit about the mentality of probably a full third of B.C. voters. They will point at this little boat, and use it against the pipeline. It is how they work.

 

[cfuhrer]

Amazing the things they ship out of Washington state these days.

Deisel and whatnot to Russia, but heaven forbid we send coal to the far east.

 

[Convoy]

British Columbia has a very large contingent of the tree hugging sort. They oppose Canada building a pipeline across their province, because they are scared of their own shadows, and especially scared of a theoretical oil spill.

What is being talked about now, is that these anti development folks, will yodel about this boat and say the same thing could happen to the oiltankers that pick up oil in the future.

Pretty shaky connection, but it is how many of these folks work. They think they have a corner on the "pristine" market. Like they are the only ones with wilderness. They are anti anything that may include "big oil." It is basically the socialist mindset, with an environmentalist twist.

Like sending the oil on trains is safer. Like an oil pipeline with its relatively small foot print somehow wrecks their lives.

And then there are the natives and the issues that come with their "land claims".

It is a mess. This supposed "disaster", which it is NOT, will give some of these folks all the fodder they need to protest the pipeline which would create thousands of jobs, add billion of wealth to the economy. Heck to it that it would be the safest way to start to ship oil from the country with debatably the worlds largest reserves of oil.

They hate the oil sands of Saskatchewan and Alberta, despite the operations there being the largest oil spill clean up job in the history of the world.

Just a bit about the mentality of probably a full third of B.C. voters. They will point at this little boat, and use it against the pipeline. It is how they work.

Dang you went into it alot more than I was going to - I was simply gonna say BC is of full of pot smoking tree humpers which would blame the pipeline if a dog farted upwind.

 

[wr]

I may disagree with some BC politics but I do feel a spill of this nature will cause some serious ecological damage.

I don't feel mocking our neighbours is of any value and ultimately, if this isn't resolved, it will affect all Canadians, even if only economically.

 

[Fennick]

Dang you went into it alot more than I was going to - I was simply gonna say BC is of full of pot smoking tree humpers which would blame the pipeline if a dog farted upwind.

I'm curious to know - which province do you live in, Alberta or Saskatchewan?

 

[Fennick]

According to other news I found the ship is now being towed to Prince Rupert to undergo repairs and is expected to arrive in Prince Rupert early tomorrow morning.

Deisel and whatnot to Russia, but heaven forbid we send coal to the far east.

Is there a problem with that in USA? USA already does export coal to the far east. 25% of USA coal exports go to China, Japan, South Korea and India. http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=11791

The deisel and bunker oil on that Russian ship is the ship's own, it's what they use to fuel the ship, it's not exactly what you could call 'cargo' per se. The cargo they took onboard in Washington is containers of chemicals used in mining industries.

 

[farmerDale]

I may disagree with some BC politics but I do feel a spill of this nature will cause some serious ecological damage.

I don't feel mocking our neighbours is of any value and ultimately, if this isn't resolved, it will affect all Canadians, even if only economically.

I think the media made everyone panic needlessly. Any spill is not a good thing. A drop of oil can contaminate a lot of water. But it always goes back to Valdez. A lot has changed in the oil spill tech since Valdez. A lot was learned from Valdez. This was a small boat, with a small amount of goods. Again, IF it had been crushed into shore, it woulda sucked, but IMO, the media made out like it was a sure thing. Look at the direness of the OP!

I was not mocking BC. I know a lot of folks from there, and am quite related to several from there, so I know how their politics runs.

Like Y2K, and "global warming", this story was much ado about nothing. Except that it was off the coast of BC, so it became something. It became impending doom. No thanks to the media.

ETA: wr, I may have jumped the gun, you may well have not been talking to me. I apologize most vehemently if that is the case...

 

[copperkid3]

No worry. I heard Obama is going to appoint a drifting ship czar pronto and the guy used to be a porn star.

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I think Putin would have something to say about 'that' . . .