Table EIR 6. Hazardous waste incident, Floriaa Keys oil spill (flerndon and 

 Teaf 1978) . 



Personal damage: None . 



Environmental damage: Uncalulated damage was done to mangrove areas from 

 Key Largo to Key West, in addition to kills of invertebrate life on beaches 

 along the Atlantic Coast of the Florida Keys. 



Economic damage: Cost of clean-up operation, financed by the U.S. Coast 

 Guard and money from federal oil spill contingency funds, totalled over 

 $367,340. Investigative costs to the Florida Department of Natural Re- 

 sources totalled $4,737. No costs have been recovered as of September 

 1980. 



Cause of problem: A marine oil spill was created on 17-18 July 1975 when it 

 was suspected that a tanker carrying fuel oil cleaned its bilges off the 

 Atlantic Coast of the Florida Keys. 



Type and quantity of hazardous waste: Recent estimates place the volume of 

 oTT spilled at approximately 60,000 gal . Final clean-up produced 1,500 

 yd of debris and oily vegetation, plus nearly 45,000 gal of oil-water 

 mixture sucked up from sites on the Monroe County coast. 



Date of incident: 17-30 July 1975. 



Location: Florida Keys (Key Largo to Key West) . 



Remedial action: Massive clean-up operations took place from 21 July until 

 30 July. Extensive testing was undertaken of oil samples from the spill 

 site as well as from the holds of 243 tankers suspected of being in the area 

 of the Florida Keys at the time of the spill, in an attempt to determine the 

 offender . 



In November 1975, the M .T . Garbis was determined to be responsible and 

 the captain, Mr . V . Psarroulis, was taken into custody in Philadelphia on 

 11 November. The U.S. Department of Justice reported in September 1980, 

 that no fines or criminal penalties had been levied in the case. 



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