Coast Guard replaces its commander in Bay Area spill disaster

[n2doc]

Coast Guard replaces its commander in spill disaster
Kevin Fagan, Demian Bulwa,Zachary Coile, Chronicle Staff Writers
Thursday, November 15, 2007

(11-14) 16:58 PST San Francisco - -- The Coast Guard was rocked by new developments Wednesday in the wake of the huge San Francisco Bay oil spill as the agency shoved aside its Bay Area disaster commander, began a wide-ranging probe of its actions after the accident and admitted it had mishandled drug tests for crew members of the ship that struck the Bay Bridge.

Capt. William Uberti, who led the initial response after the Cosco Busan struck a bridge tower on Nov. 7 and dumped 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel, was replaced by Capt. Paul Gugg, an experienced specialist in oil disasters.

The commander of the 11th Coast Guard District, Rear Adm. Craig Bone, stopped short of saying Uberti was fired. Bone said he decided on the replacement "considering the magnitude of this response operation, the level of public interest, and problems I have identified related to the initial spill response communications and coordination."

Uberti has been criticized for waiting four hours to inform the public that the spill was larger than 140 gallons and for allowing the gunky fuel to foul more than 30 beaches along the bay and ocean coastline. He will return to his usual duty as commander of the San Francisco-area Coast Guard operations.

more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/15/MNFETCBQT.DTL

Also see:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2281991&mesg_id=2281991