U.N.: Lebanon oil spill clean-up continues

ATHENS, Greece, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- The clean-up of an oil spill covering a large swath of Lebanon's coastline is succeeding, but environmentalists warn the damage has not yet been quantified.

"One of the things that still remains to be seen is what is happening on the floor," Luisa Colasimone, information officer for the U.N. Environment Program's Athens-based Mediterranean Action Plan, told United Press International Friday.

Environmentalists suspect the oil has gathered with sediment on the sea floor, but could be spread further by the water currents, Colasimone said.

Some 15,000 tons of oil poured into the Mediterranean Sea following a July 13 Israeli attack on the Jiyyeh power utility, 18 miles from Beirut. As the slick spread 93 miles up the coastline, clean-up was delayed pending cessation of the month-long Hezbollah-Israel conflict.

Air surveys made Aug. 28 and 29 showed pools of collectable, free-floating oil have largely been confined to about three areas, though the oil recovery has been hampered by the large quantities of garbage that has also landed in the Mediterranean.

UNEP said an additional air survey, as it had earlier requested, would not be necessary.

Much of the thick, gooey oil has been removed from the water surface, but Greenpeace International says the idea of an oil clean-up, particularly after several weeks of delay, is something of a misnomer.

"A toxic carpet of heavy fuel oil up to 10 cm (4 in) thick is suffocating the sea off the Lebanese coast," Greenpeace International said.

The European Commission Monitoring and Information Center says traces of sunken oil have been found in the areas near the utility, as well as at several locations along the coastline.

Colasimone said it could be as much as a year before the consequences of the spill are fully understood.