Case Study
Topic
Environmental Pollution and Decontamination
Dealing with Waste
Incident / Exercise
Incident: Sea Empress Oil Spill, 15 February 1996
Background and Context
On 15 February 1996, the Sea Empress, a 147,000 tonne tanker
bringing crude oil to Milford Haven in south-west Wales, ran aground and,
over the following week, released 72,000 tonnes of crude oil and 480 tonnes
of fuel oil into the sea. Despite a rapid and effective clean-up
response at sea, oil came ashore along 200 km of coastline; much of it in a
National Park, an area of international importance for its wildlife and
natural beauty. A ban was imposed on commercial and recreational fishing in
the region and there was concern that tourism, important to the local
economy, would be badly affected by the heavily oiled beaches.
Several thousand seabirds washed ashore, leading to a major cleaning and
rehabilitation operation.
How the Topic was Handled
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The national response organisation, the Marine Pollution Control Unit of
the Coastguard Agency, the district councils and Dyfed County Council had
contingency plans which were put into action, including the National
Contingency Plan.
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As the shoreline response to the incident was beyond the capability of a
local authority (Tier 3 spill), a Joint Response Centre (JRC) was
requested to be set up, which Central Government agreed to, and which
resulted in the local authority having access to Central Government
technical assistance and equipment. The at-sea operations were handled
exclusively by Central Government.
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Dyfed County Council was responsible for the shoreline clean-up response
and the Marine Pollution Control Unit of the Coastguard Agency was
responsible for the at-sea response. A Marine Response Centre was set up
at the Coastguard Office in Milford Haven, and the JRC was set up at the
neighbouring offices of the Milford Haven Port Authority. The JRC
followed the template identified in the local contingency plan and the
National Contingency Plan, and involved various organisations with a
remit to respond to such an incident e.g. Countryside Council for Wales,
National Rivers Authority, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority,
District Councils.
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The JRC was responsible for the shoreline clean-up response to the oil
spill. This involved the assessment of the impact of the spill on the
affected coastline, and the planned response to it including the
deployment of significant labour and equipment resources.
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The incident occurred on the evening of 15February 1996, and both at-sea
and shoreline recovery operations commenced the following morning. The
majority of the spilled oil took some 7 weeks to recover, and as the
response moved into its secondary planned phase, additional significant
beach cleaning operations were set up which took a further 6 months to
complete.
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The local authorities incurred expenditure in the order of £5 million in
shoreline clean-up activities.
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The ship's insurers set up a local claims office immediately
following the spill, and the International Tanker Owners Pollution
Federation were represented at the Joint Response Centre to provide
technical assistance in the response activities. They also provided the
local representation for the International Oil Pollution Compensation
Fund, ensuring that all response activities carried out at the direction
of the local authority were reasonable and technically sound to enable
compensation to be subsequently received.
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Waste was a significant issue with 22,000 tonnes of liquid oily wastes,
7,800 tonnes of oiled sand and 4,500 tonnes of oiled beach materials
requiring disposal. In addition there was also tens of thousands of
tonnes of oiled beach material (ie. sand, pebbles, rocks, etc.) processed
at 4 temporary on-site waste treatment operations set up and located
around the coast that was subsequently returned to the beaches of origin
after cleaning.
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A complete ban on fishing and shell fish harvesting was imposed in the
area.
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Over 7,000 dead or oiled birds were collected from the shores, a fraction
of the estimated total and far less than if the incident had happened
several weeks later when the area would have been home to large colonies
of breeding birds.
Lessons Identified
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There was no strategic waste management plan in place and waste storage
and treatment areas for large volumes of oily waste had not been
pre-identified.
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Regional / national waste strategies were not available for an emergency
producing large quantities of waste that overwhelmed local
infrastructure.
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Logistics of large scale oily waste handling had not been considered,
resulting in bottlenecks.
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Conflict over final disposal – note much legislation change since 1996 -
routes available then now closed.
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Clean up techniques were not considered in advance by the regulator.
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The regulator was not involved in decision making process.
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The end point for cleaning was not well defined, ie. when is a beach
“clean”?
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Shoreline Clean-Up Assessment needed to be developed and better
understood.
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Local contingency plan was followed, and worked well. However, because of
the imminent reorganisation of local authorities in Wales, in April 1996,
key players were unavailable to respond to the incident as planned for,
and this resulted in difficulties in the early stages of the response.
The Chair of the Joint Response Centre was taken up by the General
Manager of the Milford Haven Port Authority, as no senior officer of the
local authority was available to take on this key role. Also, there was a
reorganisation of the Environmental Regulatory Service, with the
disbanding of the National River Authorities and the District Council
functions, and the formation of the Environment Agency in April 1996.
This resulted in some operational difficulties in the shoreline response,
as decisions made on the 'fate of oil' at local contingency level
were subsequently overturned by officers of the newly formed Environment
Agency.
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The high level of deployment of local authority staff/workforce in the
shoreline response had a significant effect on normal local authority
activities.
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The close co-operation of the various partners in the Joint Response
Centre resulted in a well co-ordinated response to the clean-up.
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Important that there is close collaboration between the at-sea activities
and the on-shore response.
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Ensure that there is a good working relationship between the Joint (now
termed Shoreline) Response Centre and the Insurers' representatives
to avoid difficulties further down the line in attempting to recover
expenditure incurred in response activities.
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Don't underestimate the administrative, clerical, procurement and
financial assistance required in operating a Shoreline Response Centre.
Vital that all decisions are fully documented, complete with the
rationale behind such decisions.
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The pollution incident also became a widespread public health incident
and was associated with higher anxiety and depression, worse mental
health; and self reported headache, sore eyes and sore throat for those
living in areas exposed to the oil.
Contacts for Further Information
Dyfed County Council
Additional Documents
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