Nearly 4,000 gallons of Ethanol spilled in to Oyster Bay Harbor, late at night on December 6th, during a fuel transfer at Commander Oil.  How long was it flowing before someone noticed?  Were the monitors asleep at the switch?  Who (if anyone) and when were local officials in the community notified?  (Most folks first read about it in Newsday.)  Does Commander Oil have adequate safety and monitoring procedures?

These are just some of the questions the Coast Guard and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation need to ask during their investigation.  What else should they be asking on behalf of our community? 

Having a fuel storage, mixing and transfer depot on the Eastern Waterfront is like an accident waiting to happen.  Of course we need oil to heat our homes and power our cars, but we need to insist on the best management practices available to protect the safety of our neighbors and the health of our harbor. 

There have been fuel spill accidents here before.  This time we were very lucky.  Evidently a pipe cracked during transfer allowing the fuel to gush into the containment area, near the coastal marsh of Whites Creek behind the Library.  Why did it crack?  Was it too old or too small to handle the pressure?

Ethanol is basically corn alcohol, used in automobile fuel to increase efficiency and reduce pollution.  It is said to be "harmless", but it contains an additive making it poisonous for people to drink.  In this case, it evaporated quickly, but it could have caught fire and caused extensive damage to the fuel depot and surrounding community.    For more details check out the front page of the Oyster Bay Guardian's December 15, 2006 edition.