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| N° 157 E - News from June 2008 |
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The Cedre Newsletter is now available in English!
To receive this letter by email, all you need to do is send your email address and contact details (full name, company, position, postal address and phone number) to contact@cedre.fr
You can also download it from our website at the address www.cedre.fr/index_gb.php |
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Pollution at Donges Refinery (continued) |
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Throughout the month of June, completed worksites continued to be approved with the systematic participation of an engineer from Cedre’s Spill Follow-up Department. The same engineer also monitored the specific activities in progress and participated in meetings on the environmental monitoring project and the issue of “meadows”. |
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Spill response |
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In early June, the sinking of a barge containing 150 m3 of diesel in waters 20 m deep, 7 nautical miles north-west of Madagascar (Cap Saint-André) mobilised many responders, including our response centre and an engineer sent onsite through an assistance agreement. Very little pollution was reported at the surface. A dive showed that the barge was empty, although the cause of this remains unclear.
Two other incidents also involved Cedre’s response centre:
►a metal drum giving off white vapours found at sea by fishermen
►the aerial observation of surface pollution in Corsica, apparently of organic origin. |
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Participation in exercises |
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Requests for information on ecotoxicity and the measures that should be taken during 6 exercises mobilised the duty engineers for a wide range of substances: benzal chloride (Belfort fire service), coal, diesel and IFO 380 (simulation of the shipwrecking of an ore carrier for an oil company), dipicryl sulphide (CMIC Indre-et-Loire – mobile chemical response unit), DFO and IFO (Polmar Channel/North Sea exercise), UN1182 substance (ICE exercise initiated by Sweden), condensates, mercaptans, sulphur and cyanide derivatives (fire service of Pau). A seventh “Mediterraneo 2008” exercise brought together many responders and observers from Spain, Italy, Monaco and France in Tarragona, as part of the implementation of the Lion Plan and for discussions on the Ramogepol Plan. |
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Symposium in the Netherlands Antilles |
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From 3 to 5 June, a symposium organised by REMPEITC was held in St-Martin (Netherlands Antilles) with a view to promoting the development of regional cooperation mechanisms for response to oil pollution in the Caribbean. The Director of Cedre and the Caribbean delegate participated in this symposium which gathered together many of the States in the Caribbean Arc, with presentations by representatives of UNEP, REMPEITC, ITOPF, CC&A, the French Government (Martinique office for law enforcement at sea) and Cedre. This event was originally supposed to be held in parallel with an exercise at sea which unfortunately had to be postponed at the last minute due to the tanker booked for this exercise being unavailable. The symposium gave rise to many recommendations and proposals of possible actions which will be submitted to the RAC/REMPEITC steering committee. |
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| In short |
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| MEETINGS |
►From 23rd to 27th: meeting of the steering committee of the OSPAR Convention in Brest.
►On 30th: participation in the closing seminar of the Interreg Atlantic area project MARINE (Maritime Incident Research and Innovation Network) in Porto (Portugal). The theme of the meeting was “Maritime Incidents: Challenges and New Technologies”. See www.project-marine.eu |
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| TRAINING COURSES |
►On 2nd, training course on oil spill response in the Port of Dunkirk, for port agents and industry personnel, followed by an equipment deployment exercise on 3rd on a wharf of Flandres refinery, 22 participants.
►On 4th and 5th, training course on crisis communication applied to accidental pollution, for personnel from the companies CFT and Maritima, in Port-de-Bouc, 9 participants.
►On 17th and 19th, upon the initiative of DDE76 (equipment directorate of the Seine-Maritime area), SMNO (north-west maritime service) and the Polmar centre of Le Havre, Polmar training course for State services and the local authorities of the Manche area in Saint-Lô and at the Polmar stockpile, 30 participants.
►On 19th, participation in the training course on veterinary medicine during disasters at the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire in Nantes, 11 participants.
►On 23rd and 24th, participation in the training course for an advanced diploma on chemical risks at the National School for Fire Brigade officers in Aix-Les-Milles, 16 participants.
►From 23rd to 27th, training course on oil spill response in inland waters at Cedre, 13 participants.
►On 26th in London, participation in the Lloyds Maritime Academy training course Oil Spill Response 2008. |
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Galerne trials |
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Trials in floating cells
(© Cedre) |
The Galerne project, funded by the French National Research Agency through the Precodd programme and coordinated by Cedre, is designed to quantify the risks for operational teams during response to incidents caused by maritime transport of liquefied gases (LNG, LPG…) and other evaporating liquid substances. Within this framework, a series of trials in floating cells on mooring posts in the sheltered bay of Brest have recently validated two systems for the measurement of gas clouds and for the real time transmission of data to an onsite Command Post then slightly deferred transmission to an on land Command Post by internet. With support from the French Navy (Ceppol and naval fire service of Brest), these trials enabled the evaporation of three substances to be measured. Prototype sensors, such as D2RC (radiological and chemical detection drone) designed by the company Camka and the infrared imager by the company Actis, were assessed and suggestions for improvement were made.
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Polmar exercise in the Morbihan area |
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| In compliance with the circular relating to the French national policy on defence exercises and security, the Morbihan area organised a “Polmar” (French national contingency plan for maritime pollution) exercise from 10 to 12 June. This exercise involved deploying a floating boom on the river Crac’h, between Port Deun in Saint-Philibert and the beach of Kerbihan in La Trinité-sur-Mer. Two engineers from Cedre’s Contingency Planning Department and an intern from the Information and Documentation Department participated in this exercise. The aims were to test the operational capacities of the “Phares et Balises” (lighthouses and beacons) subdivision in Lorient, to ensure the technical applicability of a new boom deployment plan on the river of La Trinité and to actively associate the local authorities, as crisis management partners, with the law on the modernisation of civil security. |
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Contingency plans |
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| In the first week of June, two members of the Contingency Planning Department were dispatched to the sites of Total Lubrifiants in Petit-Quevilly (near Rouen) and Total Fluides in the Oudalle area (near Le Havre), for a survey to help to draft the contingency plans for these two sites. This assignment was intended to assess the risks connected to loading/unloading operations for petroleum products on the wharfs located on the Seine and the Tancarville canal, to make an inventory of the response equipment existing onsite, to discuss the different possible scenarios and to collect the environmental, economic and technical data needed to draw up these plans. The assignment was also the chance to visit the refinery of Normandy for the first time, whose contingency plan will be revised by Cedre in 2008. |
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Visit to waste storage centres |
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| Following contacts made during the Pollutec exhibition in December 2007, five engineers from Cedre visited the facilities of the company Séché Eco-Industries on 16 June in Changé (Pays de la Loire region). The day was centred around visiting class I and II “ultimate waste storage centres” (CSDU) and observing pre-treatment processes implemented on the site (sorting, stabilisation, desorption and treatment of contaminated soil). The visit was followed by discussions focused on presenting the response capacities of the Séché Environnement group and defining the types of treatments suitable for oil spill waste management. |
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Pollution response workshop in Morocco |
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| Upon request from the Moroccan authorities, SAMIR (Société Anonyme Marocaine de l'Industrie du Raffinage) organised, with support from the Mediterranean Oil Industry Group (MOIG), a seminar on response to marine pollution on 13 June. Around one hundred representatives of different Moroccan administrations and the oil industry participated in this session held on the premises of SAMIR. A representative of the Moroccan Ministry of the Environment presented the results of the national SIMULEX 2008 exercise which was conducted in Nador in early June and representatives of OSRL, REMPEC and Cedre addressed various technical and regulatory topics. |
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