Feb 6, 2008 12:11 pm US/Pacific
Oakland Joins SF Bay Oil Spill Lawsuit
OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS) ―
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The Cosco Busan in San Francisco Bay following a collision with the Bay Bridge on November 7.
CBS
The city of Oakland is joining a lawsuit stemming from a November 7th oil spill into the San Francisco Bay.
The total damage amount associated with the spill that occured after the Cosco busan hit Bay Bridge may not be known for years.
San Francisco, will be doing the "heavy lifting" of the lawsuit, but the Oakland City Council voted to join the litigation, naming the owner, the leasing company, and the operators of the Cosco Busan container ship in the suit.
"We're going to be talking about this incident for years," reasoned Alex Katz, a spokesman for the Oakland City Attorney's office. "We're also going to be learning what the true cost of this damage is, for years."
Katz claims there are multiple grounds for the lawsuit, including the time and expense the city incurred in responding to the incident, when thousands of gallons of heavy bunker fuel spilled into the water, after the Cosco Busan hit a protective fender of the Bay Bridge. "We have grounds under state and federal environmental laws, so the ultimate amount we don't know and won't know for a long time," Katz explained.
John Cota, who was piloting the ship at the time of the incident, was also been named in the lawsuit.
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