it's a little dark but here's the culprit.

i agree, the air in New Haven is bad to begin with. it's upsetting to think how long our city has been complacent with these smoke belching refineries.

I saw that ship belching thick smoke at 730 PM last night. Wonder how long it lasted--when was the picture taken?

For future accountability, photos that include a vessels name on the stern can be taken from the northernmost shore of East Shore Park.

I saw this last night while driving home around 7:30, too. Lots of rubber neckers on the highway made the drive dangerous.

Is that what this was? It was all over Upper State St too.

Horrible toxic plume near East Rock too. I'm calling this eco-terrorrism. The culprits need to be arrested, jailed and fined.

More on "bunker fuel"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-16-ships-create-pollution-cars-world.html

n London, on the south bank of the Thames looking across at the Houses of Parliament, is the International Maritime Organisation, the UN body that polices the world’s shipping.

For decades, the IMO has rebuffed calls to clean up ship pollution. As a result, while it has long since been illegal to belch black, sulphur-laden smoke from power-station chimneys or lorry exhausts, shipping has kept its licence to pollute.

For 31 years, the IMO has operated a policy agreed by the 169 governments that make up the organisation which allows most ships to burn bunker fuel.

Christian Eyde Moller, boss of the DK shipping company in Rotterdam, recently described this as ‘just waste oil, basically what is left over after all the cleaner fuels have been extracted from crude oil. It’s tar, the same as asphalt.

It’s the cheapest and dirtiest fuel in the world’.

Bunker fuel is also thick with sulphur. IMO rules allow ships to burn fuel containing up to 4.5 per cent sulphur. That is 4,500 times more than is allowed in car fuel in the European Union. The sulphur comes out of ship funnels as tiny particles, and it is these that get deep into lungs.

Thanks to the IMO’s rules, the largest ships can each emit as much as 5,000 tons of sulphur in a year – the same as 50million typical cars, each emitting an average of 100 grams of sulphur a year.

Part of the community benefits agreement with PSEG for the expansion of Harbor Station is funding which will allow for new electrical infrastructure at the port (at least two of the piers will be electrified) so that big tankers do not have to run their diesel engines while in port. Along with retrofits of stationary equipment at the port and retrofits of the City's garbage truck fleet, this should lead to a measurable improvement in air quality in neighborhoods near the port. See http://newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/activists_and_city_collaborate_to/.

Thank you for alerting us. The ship has already left the port.

I actually smelled this all the way up in Hamden. I didn't realize it could travel so far.

The ship may have left, but there was still a strong smell like burning tar on my commute home at about 6:30 pm this evening.

Obviously the air quality is a complicated issue but I'd like to see something done. Are there any organization I could join to help work for a difference?

Obviously the air quality is a complicated issue but I'd like to see something done. Are there any organization I could join to help work for a difference?

I left work at 12:30am that night and saw that disgusting smoke. Hopefully there is a fine for allowing such chemicals to spew in our air.

Inappropriate to close this issue - doesn't matter if the cause was not a local entity - the local entity has the ability to regulate what comes into the harbor.

Jeffery100York was closing issues to be a nuisance...

See also:
http://seeclickfix.com/issues/44308
I suspect the smoking ship was adding to another ongoing issue of toxic emissions from a business located on the I91 corridor in, or near New Haven, North Haven, Southern Hamden.

I created a watch area for the CT DEP Air Pollution Complaints Line. They have received a recommendation to watch this issue. Hopefully they will follow up.

That ship has sailed. The Office of Sustainability tells me so.

Just came back from fishing on the T Bridge. No ship and no smoke.

Fishing on the T Bridge? I hope you're enjoying your toxic catch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Sound#Pollution

Nice to know that a foreign vessel can come into an American port and spew toxic gas over half of the city. I suppose we're lucky they weren't emitting chlorine, phosgene or anthrax...

I noticed the same scent again coming home last Thursday night - too dark to see if there was the smoke again.

Yes it was pretty bad yesterday too.

I'm not sure what those ships are burning - anyone know?

The ships usually burn number6 fuel oil, the bottom of the barrel akin to tar full of a lot of contaminants like mercury that are toxic. Shipping is regulated by federal law; Los Angeles CA was successful after years of trying to reduce pollution from this source. Residents in Morris Cove complain about soot from the ships sailing in and out. I was told that they don't spend a lot of time in port; just enough to offload their oil but they use the ship engine to power the ship and the pumps to deliver their product. New Haven is the site of terminal that feeds oil throughout New England via pipeline.

If you're interested in working on air pollution issues in New Haven the New Haven Environmental Justice Network (google group contact) would be a good place to meet people that have worked and are working in this area.
lb

That is one of the most toxic substances known to man. If true, why is bunker fuel legal to burn in the middle of New Haven, but is banned in many other cities? In LA, ships have to switch to higher quality fuel when they get within 10 miles of the port.

so move.

No recurring incidents