New Zealand oil spill response strategy - Maritime New Zealand

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All vessels that meet the criteria specified by the MARPOL 73/78 convention (as reflected in Part 130A) are required to have a shipboard oil pollution emergency plan (SOPEP), approved and audited by Maritime New Zealand or the appropriate maritime authority for foreign flagged vessels. The owner of an oil transfer site is required to ensure that an approved oil spill contingency plan has been produced (either by themselves or their tenants or lessees). The regional council, acting under a delegation from the Director, will be responsible for approving and auditing the contingency plans for oil transfer sites. The owner of an offshore installation (or their tenants or lessees) is required to produce a marine oil spill contingency plan. In addition, discharge management plans are to incorporate emergency response provisions for oil spills. Both contingency plans and discharge management plans are approved and audited by Maritime New Zealand. Where there are a number of related structures in a limited and defined geographic area, such as a large hydrocarbon field, the same contingency plan under the emergency response provisions may be shared if appropriate. If a spill from a Tier 1 site cannot be contained and recovered by the spiller, it must escalate to the next appropriate Tier. Tier 2 Tier 2 response is the responsibility of regional councils and those unitary authorities acting as regional councils under the Act. These agencies must maintain the regional contingency plan for their region. Within their regions, these councils will respond to marine oil spills that exceed the clean-up capability of Tier 1 (some regions have instigated a policy whereby a Tier 1 incident automatically escalates to Tier 2 if oil enters waters in the public domain). They will also respond to those spills for which no responsible party can be identified. Maritime New Zealand will provide regional councils with sufficient equipment, training and opportunities to exercise their expertise in order to competently undertake this role. Regional council Tier 2 personnel and resources also play a fundamental role in Tier 3 responses. In the event of a significant incident that escalates to Tier 3, the Tier 2 responders maintain the response during the transition phase, and still form an integral and vital part of clean-up activities at the Tier 3 level. Each regional council is required to produce, maintain and implement a regional marine oil spill contingency plan for their Territorial Sea (out to 12 nautical miles). Maritime New Zealand will approve and audit these regional plans. The regional contingency planning process should also include prespill segmentation of the region’s coastline by suitable trained assessors, to identify homogenous segments and any associated response issues in advance of an incident. An opportunity now exists for most regional councils to link their contingency planning process to the risk assessments that should be undertaken every three years under the New Zealand Port and Harbour Marine Safety Code 2004. The Code, though voluntary in nature, stipulates that the region should undertake a risk assessment for all harbours and areas of compulsory pilotage within their jurisdiction. Risk assessment should form the basis and be a fundamental driver of contingency planning. The relationship between Tier 2 & 3 plans has undergone a significant evolution since the previous strategy in 2000. The structure of the plans has been redefined, so national and regional plans will contain uniform operational procedures. Regional Tier 2 plans will include specific local information in appropriate annexes. As Maritime New Zealand maintains the generic front end of the plan, regional councils can concentrate their resources on identifying and prioritising sensitive areas and local response issues. During an incident, if a spiller cannot be identified or if a spill is beyond the capability of the Tier 1 site to respond, the ROSC will assume responsibility for the clean-up operation within their region directly. The ROSC shall decide whether or not it is appropriate for any action to be taken in response to that marine oil spill. According to section 303 of the Maritime Transport Act, the principal objective of the ROSC in taking any such action will be to prevent further pollution from the marine oil spill, and to contain and clean up the oil spill in accordance with the relevant regional marine oil spill contingency 12
plan. The action taken in response to the spill must not cause unreasonable danger to human life or cause an unreasonable risk of injury to any person. The ROSC has a responsibility (detailed in the National Plan) to notify Maritime New Zealand’s Rescue Co-ordination Centre as soon as they become responsible for a marine oil spill response operation. The ROSC may seek the support of Maritime New Zealand at any stage, and Maritime New Zealand may appoint a representative to support the ROSC, where appropriate, to offer technical advice. If the spill is beyond the capability or resources at the disposal of the ROSC, either the Maritime New Zealand representative, or the oil spill duty officer (OSDO), or the NOSC, should be notified as soon as possible, and the response escalated to Tier 3. The NOSC may also determine at any time that progression from regional to national response is appropriate. Tier 2/3 Transition The Tier 2 to Tier 3 transition depends on the timing of the escalation to Tier 3, and the arrival of the NOSC and the team to the Incident Command Centre (ICC). When a Tier 3 is declared, the NOSC assumes control of the incident. There may be elements of the operation delegated to the ROSC to fulfil while the NOSC is en route to the incident. However the elevation of an incident to Tier 3 (see Response Escalation Criteria) is the responsibility of the NOSC. This enables the NOSC to ready the ICC and local response for the next level of operations. The NOSC and the wider team’s travel generally will be separate to mitigate out any possibility of transit ‘failure’. Tier 3 Tier 3 is the responsibility of Maritime New Zealand. When, due to size, complexity or environmental impact, containing and cleaning up a marine oil spill exceeds the capacity of the resources available at both Tier 1 and/or 2, Maritime New Zealand will assume responsibility for managing the response under the National Plan. Maritime New Zealand will also manage the response to any oil spill within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and those beyond the EEZ over the New Zealand continental shelf. Maritime New Zealand is responsible for the National Plan. This entails the maintenance of a generic plan containing all operational procedures, which will be added to the regional Tier 2 annexes containing all pertinent local information to facilitate a successful response. In addition and as appropriate, Maritime New Zealand will produce ‘special area’ contingency plans, such as the Fiordland plan. These will be developed where an area is of such environmental significance, or has such complex response issues, that it is deemed necessary to address contingency planning as a discrete entity at a national level. New Zealand's Tier 3 response capability is made up of Maritime New Zealand, the regions, contractors, consultants and agencies where agreements are in place. In a Tier 3 response the NOSC assumes control of and responsibility for the marine oil spill response operations. The functions and powers of the NOSC are the same as those described for the ROSC. However, the directions of the NOSC will prevail over those of the ROSC. If a large marine oil spill occurs anywhere in New Zealand’s area of responsibility, and it is beyond the nation’s own resources to contain and clean up, the Director will seek international support for the Tier 3 response. Through the 1990 International Convention on Oil Spill Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC), New Zealand has already established arrangements to provide international support. The National Marine Oil Spill Contingency Plan will be used to plan for and carry out a response involving international resources. New Zealand has reciprocal obligations to fulfil international agreements and conventions to provide assistance beyond New Zealand marine waters to neighbouring countries, including Australia and the South Pacific. Operational arrangements needed to allow these obligations to be met, such as Memoranda of Understanding, will be included within the National Plan. Reviews After any marine oil spill (Tier 1, 2 or 3) the Director may review the incident to explore potential improvements to contingency plan arrangements for future responses. This would be undertaken pursuant to section 325 of the Act. In order to carry out these reviews with the greatest efficiency and effectiveness, a sub-committee of OPAC has been established (though the Director may include other experts as required). Acting on behalf of the Director, the Marine Oil Spill Response Review Group 13
Page 1: JULY 2006
Page 4 and 5: FOREWORD The New Zealand Marine Oil
Page 6 and 7: THE NEW ZEALAND MARINE OIL SPILL RE
Page 8 and 9: Risk Assessment National marine oil
Page 10 and 11: Spill Consequences A framework for
Page 12 and 13: The Oil Pollution Advisory Committe
Page 16 and 17: (MOSRRG) reviews Tier 1 & 2 inciden
Page 18 and 19: de-escalated. This is to ensure con
Page 20 and 21: All New Zealand marine waters are d
Page 22 and 23: Training Maritime New Zealand is re
Page 24 and 25: In all cases, the OSC must keep str
Page 26 and 27: In addition, Maritime New Zealand w
Page 28 and 29: Appendix 2 - Key Functions and Resp
Page 30 and 31: Appendix 4 - Key Functions and Resp
Page 32 and 33: Ministry for the Environment • To
Page 34 and 35: Appendix 6 - International Agreemen
Page 36 and 37: operations for the purpose of savin
Page 38 and 39: ACRONYMS AMOSC Australian Marine Oi
Page 40 and 41: Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) All m
Page 42 and 43: On-scene commander (OSC) The person

New Zealand oil spill response strategy - Maritime New Zealand

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