Weeklong Oil Leak Devastates Iran River, Kills 30,000 Animals

I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area when the COSCO Busan oil tanker ran right into the Bay Bridge spilling 53,500 gallons (200,000 litres) of bunker fuel into the San Francisco Bay. I remember the response it got - anger, disgust, sadness, and a reminder of the terrible effects oil spills present.

In Iran it was just discovered that a crude oil pipe has been leaking for weeks, or even months, into the Kashkan River. Authorities still don't even know where the leak is coming from.

“The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) officials have not been able to stop the leakage in the Serkan-Makuh pipeline since last Saturday,” head of the Environmental Organization for Luristan Province Abdolrahim Kakavand told ILNA news agency on Saturday.

“The leakage might have been active for weeks or months since it is an underground pipeline. Therefore it is difficult to locate the leaking point,” he added.

“NIOC has been digging about 100 meters around the leaking pipe but the exact location of the leak has not been found yet,” he explained.

The leak was detected Thursday morning in the 10-inch (25.4 cm) oil pipeline along the Serkan-Makuh axis, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the town of Pol-e Dokhtar in Luristan.

The leak continued for 19 hours after it was discovered and polluted about 45 kilometers (28 miles) of the River Kashkan, resulting in the death of some 30,000 marine animals. In comparison, the COSCO Busan oil spill is known to have killed 2,519 birds: 1,084 birds were collected alive (664 of which died; 421 of which were rehabilitated and released) and 1,856 were collected dead.

Kakavand described the damage to the region's ecosystem as "irreparable".

Oil leaks like this routinely occur throughout the Middle East, destroying ecosystems and wrecking havoc on local communities and fisheries. The COSCO Busan oil spill was all over the news for weeks but I'm sure few people will ever hear about this spill in Iran and others that occur throughout the region, which are often ignored for huge periods of time.

We need to hold oil companies and the governments that support them accountable for the damage they cause outside of normal public viewing. The COSCO Busan spill was attributed to many factors such as the crew, the Japanese government, and local Coast Guard authorities, all of which received heavy fines (for killing protected birds), punishment (jail time for the captain), and criticism. I can almost guarantee that nobody will pay for the spill in Iran, and I wonder if there will even be a cleanup crew sent out.