This month of October saw a particularly large number of exercises: no fewer than 8, some of which were accompanied by field training. In addition to the now traditional ICE exercise (organised this month by Switzerland), we make mention of inquiries concerning the drift and fate of oil as well as advice on response at sea following simulations of oil tanker accidents in the Bosphorus Strait and in Madagascar, of a bunkering incident involving a chemical tanker in Marseille and of a presumed voluntary discharge off the coast of the French Pyrénées-Orientales area. Two other exercises also involved inland waters.
In terms of response to real incidents, we were called upon following the wrecking of two fishing boats off the coast of Brittany, a 400 litre spill of dichloromethane in Guadeloupe, a fire involving a cargo of rapeseed which led us to request assistance from CASU (INERIS emergency response unit), as well as a leak, which turned out to be minimal, from an oil wharf at Donges refinery for which two engineers conducted a reconnaissance survey.

On 17 October 2008, at the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) headquarters in Lisbon, Willem de Ruiter, EMSA Executive Director, Joachim Krüger, Executive Director of the Energy, HNS and Logistics Programme of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and Pierre Maille, Chairman of the Board of Cedre, signed an agreement between the three organisations establishing the “MAR-ICE Network,” a framework for closer co-operation in the field of chemical marine pollution response. For more information, see www.cedre.fr

The head of the Emergency Response Department spent the week from 13 to 17 October in Norway to discuss with SINTEF (Trondheim) the possibilities of using their oil weathering module coupled with MOTHY and to seek information from the company Franck Mohn (Bergen) about the new advances in pumping out wrecks. He also met agents from the National Coastal Administration in Horten for a meeting concerning their policy on dangerous wrecks and their neutralisation (U864, Boiky, Nordvard, Welheim, wrecks of Narvik…).

On 21 and 22 October, an engineer from Cedre led a workshop in Algiers designed to promote the implementation of a national policy on the use of dispersants for pollution response. The workshop was organised by REMPEC within the framework of the IMO Technical Co-operation Programme, in collaboration with the Directorate-General of Land Planning, the Environment and Tourism of Algiers.

The two practical training sessions conducted in Nouméa in March 2008 (Newsletter 154) were renewed from 6 to 10 October, then from 13 to 17 October with the help of the Navy, Société Le Nickel (SLN) and Société de Services Pétroliers (SSP). This initiative of the New Caledonian pollution response committee brings up to 80 the number of public and industrial personnel trained this year in response techniques by Cedre. The next stage will involve training mining industry personnel, on their own site and with their own equipment.

After being closed for two years, the newly refurbished IMO London headquarters hosted the 8th OPRC-HNS technical group meeting of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) from 29 September to 2 October. The meeting was led by a new chairman, Nick Quinn (New Zealand), and brought together representatives of 22 countries and 10 international organisations to discuss manuals, guides, training courses, information, technical cooperation and operational experience feedback. Chemical pollutants appear to be one of the group’s growing concerns. Cedre is beginning to reap the benefits of its efforts to translate its documents into English: our international partners are showing growing interest in our work.

A member of Cedre’s management team took part, on 15 and 16 October in Delft, in the second meeting of the claims working group, set up under the auspices of the Consultative Technical Group of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). This group focuses on comparing experiences and practices of the different States of the European Union in terms of claims and compensation in the event of a spill due to maritime transport. Its first observation is that practices vary greatly from one country to another, both in terms of the nature of compensation claimed and cost calculation. The aim of exchanging experiences is to enable each State to improve its performance and to obtain compensation closer to the actual expenses.

Operations to cut up and remove the wreck of the bulk ship New Flame, grounded this summer off Europa Point (Newsletters 147 and 148), took a major step forward last month with the removal of the 600-tonne accommodation block in one piece and the beginning of operations to cut up the hull. However, two other vessels grounded in the Strait of Gibraltar in strong winds on 10 October, resulting in small spills of bunker fuel and creating more work for those in charge of salvage. The Liberian bulk carrier Fedra grounded on the rocks of Europa Point, the southernmost point of the Rock of Gibraltar. The deck of the vessel was submerged by breaking waves and the crew was successfully rescued thanks to a crane belonging to Titan Salvage, the contractor in charge of removing the New Flame, positioned on the breakwater. The Tawe, another Liberian vessel, grounded on the other side of Algeciras Bay, on San Garcia Point. The Fedra spilt 150 to 300 tonnes of bunker fuel and the Tawe around 30 tonnes. As with the grounding of the New Flame, the Spanish authorities mobilised an EMSA-contracted oil recovery vessel, in this case Bahia tres, to contribute to pollution response efforts.

Readers of our Newsletter (n°s 45, 46, 47, 48, 52, 75 and 110) may recall the pollution of the Oregon coastline by the grounding of the container ship New Carissa in May 1999 and the efforts of the US Navy to burn the fuel remaining in the bunker tanks then remove the wreck. While towing the bow, the towline broke and the bow grounded for a second time, was refloated once again and was finally sunk in the open sea by a torpedo. Only part of the stern section was able to be removed, in May 1999, before operations came to a standstill for lack of payer. An agreement between the shipowner and the authorities was made in May 2006, enabling the work to be resumed. The remaining section had to be removed from the sand and cut into pieces to be loaded onto a barge, while the discovery of tar balls still present onsite also had to be dealt with. In total, the operation cost 16.4 million Dollars and was completed by Titan Salvage on 1st October 2008, nine and a half years after the incident occurred.