San jorge oil spill: An experience from Uruguay

Abstract

This poster presentation refers to the response actions to an oil spill that took place in front of the Maldonado coast line, near Punta del Este, the principal tourist resort in Uruguay, South America. The spill was caused by the collision of the tanker SAN JORGE against a rocky formation that did not appear on the nautical charts. This tanker, of Panamanian flag, was transporting 60,000 tons of Cañadon Seco crude oil from Comodoro Rivadavia (Argentina) to San Sebastian (Brazil). The collision caused initially a spill that was controlled with dispersants, but 2 days later adverse meteorological conditions drove the spill toward the coast, impacting an extension of 25 km. Floating booms were deployed before at the entrance of a creek and a lagoon, both of them of high ecological sensitivity, so it only remained to prepare cleanup actions at the beaches. These response actions had to be very quick because the spill occured in the middle of the summer, with Punta del Este full of tourists. The actions were successful, and in 2 weeks the beaches were kept almost completely clean.