All Maritime News and Travel: Tracking toxic chemicals in oil spills

07 February 2012

Tracking toxic chemicals in oil spills

Karin Lemkau -

I don’t do San Francisco like most people.

I skip the cable cars, Lombard Street, Alcatraz, and the fine restaurants and museums.

Soon after my flight arrives, I drive my rental car north over the Golden Gate Bridge and hike uphill a half-mile where I am rewarded by breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean and steep slopes filled with dry grasses and brilliant green vegetation.

But that’s not what I’m after. I trek a mile farther down a treacherous slope to a small beach, where I find what I’ve been seeking. Rocks. Rocks with oil on them.

Next I drive to a popular coastal walkway to peruse more rocks.

The following day I visit a local marina and one of the largest dog parks in the United States, where, in addition to rocks, the shoreline is covered with hundreds of broken ceramic dishes—remnants of a ceramic factory closed in the late 1960s.

I’ll collect anything with oil on it. On the third day, my search takes me by ferry to Angel Island.

I walk briskly around the island’s perimeter and make it back to the ferry just in time to catch the return trip to San Francisco. And then to the airport. I know the routine well.

I’ve done it half a dozen times. At each stop, I pull out purple gloves and foil envelopes and scour the shoreline for oil samples.

Passersby offer me quizzical looks; a few stop to ask questions.

If my intense staring at rocks and searching in every nook and cranny doesn’t get their attention, the purple gloves do.

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