Amazzone: response
A particularly difficult response operation
On the morning of 1st February, the Préfecture
Maritime activated Cedre's response intervention centre. It proved
very difficult to locate the pollutant and to assess its nature
and volume as the extreme weather conditions made aerial surveillance
operations challenging. It was practically impossible to predict
precisely where and when the extensive slicks covering several
knots would reach the coast.
However a French Navy helicopter managed
to take a number of initial samples of the pollutant. The EPSHOM
(the French Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service) confirmed
that the pollutant was a highly viscous crude, with
a pour point of 36 °C. Neither pumping nor chemical dispersion
were viable options. The aerial dispersion plan was abandonned.
The
number of aerial missions increased. On 2nd February, the Polmar
Land Plans for Finistère and the Côtes d’Armor
were activated. The Polmar Sea Plan was delayed due to bad weather
conditions, however all the relevant organisations were on stand-by.
A network of operational response centres linked the affected
communities. The Manche region had not yet been hit, but preparatory
measures were taken.
Protection
of Aber Benoit using a boom. © Cedre
First
measures taken on land
The Departmental Direction of Equipment (DDE) set up mooring
posts and floating booms (5 km in total), which belonged to the
Brest and Saint Nazaire Polmar Centres. They were assisted by French
Navy divers and local fishermen. These measures protected the harbour
entrances, the Rade de Brest, the river mouths in Finistère,
the straits, the Ile Grande marsh reserve in Ploemeur-Bodou, the
estuaries in the Côtes d’Armor and the sensitive aquacultural
areas.
Pollution
from the Amazzone: pellets. © Cedre
On the 3 February the oil began to arrive on the beaches in northern Finistère, and the manual and mecanical clean-up operations began. The most efficient method used for recovering the balls of oil caught in the seaweed was the use of shovels, pitchforks and buckets. Equipment from the public sector was provided to collect the waste. The communities from Saint Mathieu to Cléder requested reinforcements. Volonteers joined forces with firefighters, soldiers, civil defence personnel and equipment employees.
Onshore
response
On
3rd February, a lull in the weather meant that the Maritime
Prefect for the Atlantic could put the Polmar Sea Plan into
action. On 6 February, French Naval vessels carried out trial
trawling operations in the Bay of Brest and the Bay of Douarnenez.
However this approach was soon abandonned, as the pellets
of pollutant slipped through the nets. The use of skimmers
vessels, Sirene 20 skimmers and Pollutank inflatable reservoirs
carried out by two Navy patrol boats failed. The Polmar Sea
Plan ended on 9 February.
On
10 February, more than 800 workers were involved in the clean-up
operations. In Pospoder, the first place hit by the pollution,
contracted a private organisation to clean up the fresh oil
polluting the walls, the quays and the rocks.
Clean-up operation for the pollution from the
Amazzone. © Cedre
An anti-pollution movement was also set up in southern Finistère, then in the Manche region. The DDE equipment and the Polmar stockpiles were made available. On 6 February, the Brest Polmar Centre supplied a ROLBA mechanical rake to rapidly and selectively collect the highly viscous oil found on the beaches in Audierne and Crozon. However the attempts at mechanical recovery proved to be less efficient than manual recovery. At a later stage, the mobile pebble clean-up centre, designed by the French Oil Institute, the French Public Works Research Laboratory (LCPC) and Cedre, was successfully used on pebbles in the Bay of Audierne. This innovative method allowed the conservation of the strip of pebbles protecting the site. In the Côtes d’Armor, the pollution was not as considerable, but extended progressively from east to west between 11 and 25 February. The clean-up operation was carried out by the communities on their own initiative. The most heavily polluted place, Pleubian, requested reinforcements of volonteers.
The
clean-up operation
The collected waste was transported to temporary storage sites by
heavy machinery, tractors, power shovels and lorries. In the areas
that were difficult to access, the waste was recovered manually,
then the bags of waste were collected by navy helicopters
and flat-bottomed boats.
Seaweed,
sand, pebbles and waste were depolluted on site, transported to
Brest's deballasting station, or taken to treatment plants. In northern
Finistère, 2100 m³ of lightly oiled waste (less than 5 %
oil) were buried in the Spernot tip in Brest. All the waste from
the southern coasts of Finistère (4375 m³), as well as the
300 m³ of waste collected when clean-up operations on the northern
coast were resumed, was gathered together in the open area in Brest's
commercial port. Lime treatment operations began
on 17 February and were completed on 21 April.
In
total, nearly 10,000 tonnes of waste were recovered on the Breton
coasts, and 2,000 to 3,000 tonnes on the shores of Normandy.
Waste
treatment
On each polluted site, the treatment protocol was determined
according to the type of shore in question. Treatment tests were
carried out on oiled seaweed in Brest's port. Experts from Cedre,
the French Oil Institute and the CEVA (European research centre
for algae) chose this solution for the 200 tonnes of seaweed collected
near Melon-Porspoder. The company contracted to carry out operations
was assisted by technicians from Brest's Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. The slimy pellets were crushed, then mixed with granula,
a highly calcareous quicklime which fixes hydrocarbons. This treatment
had previously been used during the Amoco Cadiz spill. The method
involved spreading out the oiled seaweed in layers of about 20 cm,
compressing it in places to make a homogeneous layer, scattering
the quicklime using a spreader, then mixing for a second time before
compressing the mixture with a roller (Isopracteur).
Lime
treatment. © Cedre
A laboratory
was responsible for controlling the quality of the lime and measuring
the water content of the waste. The resulting substance could be
recycled and used as a filling material for roadworks or as garden
fertiliser.
In
southern Finistère, the compressed oiled sheets were stored
and were to be incinerated.
Pebble clean-up
In the Bay of Audierne, the protective strip of pebbles was covered
with oil. Some 1200 m³ of polluted pebbles had to be cleaned and
replaced before the spring tides, as they had to resume their function
of naturally protecting the dunes. Cedre and the French Oil Institute
put forward an innovative cleaning technique: a mobile pebble clean-up
centre.
The
main clean-up operations were completed by the end of February,
however pebble clean-up continued into March.
Pebble
clean-up centre. © Cedre
Intermediary
storage
In Finistère, Cedre advised that waste should be gathered
on one or two designated sites per sector, in order to facilitate
its removal. Agricultural machinery was used to deposit the waste
in car parks, on plastic tarpaulins (in the Baie des Trépassés),
in specially dug pits (Kersiguenou in Crozon), or in skips set up
in car parks (Sainte
Anne La Palud).
Air-lifting waste
On
16 February, French Navy Super Frelon helicopters air-lifted
the bags of waste from the manual clean-up of the beaches
that were difficult to access, for example the beaches of
Penhat, Lanroz (Camaret) and Trez Bihan (Telgruc). These sites
were impossible to access by boat, even at low tide, because
of the high cliffs and rocky breakwater heads surrounding
them. The increase in the tides and the worsening of the weather
meant that intervention was increasingly urgent, in order
to avoid the manually collected pollution being swept out
to sea.
The
Trez Bihan site was a particularly worrying potential source
of pollution for the surrounding non-polluted or previously
cleaned areas. Given the considerable costs involved (~£5,000/hour),
discussions began between insurers and the relevant authorities.
In the end, more than 900 40 kilo bags were deposited on the
cliffs, involving 35 round trips in 5 hours. Over 30 m³ of
waste was sent to treatment centres.
Removal
of waste by helicopter. © Cedre
Waste
removed by the sea
In
Perzic, 5 m³ of waste was removed by sea. Two boats were transported
to Kerloc'h beach by road. The operation took 6 hours and
all the bags were recovered, despite the fact that the river
barges were poorly adapted for the task.
Last update: April 2006