WELCOME TO SPILL ALERT WELCOME TO SPILL ALERT

WELCOME

Lee Barber, Chair UK and Ireland Spill Association

Welcome to the 21st edition of Spill Alert.

Since the last issue we have had a wellattended Inland Spill Event on 22 April which demonstrated the depth of knowledge in the Association and the scope of work being undertaken by our members. The level of attendance does suggest that there may be a role for some future events to be virtual – watch out for our survey on this!

As I write, we have members collaborating on the recovery of plastic pollution so that we can develop, in conjunction with the Environment Agency, an appropriate response plan. This project is seeing manufacturers and responders, working together to evolve solutions to an existing problem. This is the strength of collaborative working which the Association can enable when all participate and may be the start of other such projects formed as an innovation cluster.

Elsewhere we have seen no shortage of spill action across the world in which some of our members are involved the latest being the X-Press Pearl, a three month old vessel destroyed by a fire that started in a container it was carrying which eventually spread to the whole vessel. The fire caused acids and the contents of the 1800+ containers it was carrying to enter the waters around the vessel, anchored just 9 nm from the shore. The effect of the fire and the fire-fighting efforts eventually flooded the engine room and the vessel has slowly sunk to the seabed. Association members are out there dealing with the incident which will cause considerable harm to Sri Lanka and of course to the fisherman and those whose livelihood derives from the nearby beaches which are covered in debris from the containers and whose seas cannot be fished or even swum in.

We have also seen an engine room fire destroy a large fleet support vessel belonging to the Iran Navy has sunk in the Strait of Hormuz causing further pollution of this busy waterway. In the same region there is increasing concern about the integrity of the large, aged and damaged Fuel Storage Vessel Safir, which is sat off the Yemen coastline deteriorating through lack of maintenance that is being prevented by the Houthi rebels. The United Nations thought it had agreement to inspect the vessel in December, then February and now talks have failed again…. The environmental impact on the region if the vessel structurally fails will be immense.

More reason to keep training, maintaining capability, keep current and be ready to deploy. Fortunately talking to members just about all are busy which is good news. There is plenty going on in the Association at the moment, the new website is a push forward and with an expanded Knowledge Base programme should help keep us engaged!