Oil Spill Effects Can Persist for Decades 2002 Annual Report In September 1969, when the oil barge Florida went aground off West Falmouth, Massachusetts, conventional wisdom said the 650,000 liters (169,000 gallons) of diesel fuel spilled into Wild Harbor would disappear after a day or so. Conventional wisdom could not have been more wrong.
	Oil from Spill Lingers in West Falmouth Marsh By Mike Carlowicz, Woods Hole Currents Thirty years ago, thousands of gallons of oil were spilled on the western shores of Cape Cod. Today, three inches below the seabed, it's as if the spill happened yesterday.