This article on the local newspaper Uusimaa states that the number of oil spills detected in 2005 has increased by some 30%. This is just the number of confirmed sightings which are 48 in 2005.
One has to remeber that most likely there are at least as many not detected oil spills or even many more...
It is also said in this article that the Finnish government will start to apply a law from 1st April 2006, making it a fee for oilspills varying between about 4000-40000 €uros depending on how large the spill is! In the article they say that the spills seen in 2005 have been about 29 metric tons.
Instead of making as I would suggest a compulsory oil cleaning fee in the harbours which would make it necessary and compulsory to clean your tanks in the harbour, and then a massive penalty if you do it in the said waters! The penalty must be large enough to scare off these offenders!
Now one has to ask the following: How will the costs for the material and labour on the achieved oil spill be covered? Will 40000 €uros be enough as we know that it costs about 17-25 €uros/kg of heavy oil to be removed from the waters and the beaches? In my calculus this means that with 40000 €uros you can cover only 1600 kg of oil ie 1.6 metric tons. Not very much? Will the rest of these costs once again be covered by the tax payers money? I say hold your horses! This is getting once again all too easy! No way, the one who does the dirty work has to pay for the cleanup in FULL!
Should we do something?
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