New Zealand oil spill response strategy - Maritime New Zealand

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(MOSRRG) reviews Tier 1 & 2 incidents referred to it by the Director. As a matter of best practice, the MOSRRG should meet on an annual basis at least, more if appropriate, to review incidents occurring over the previous year. Tier 3 responses will be reviewed by independent, external means. As there is no formal statutory process for the review of the National Plan, the Director has determined that the most appropriate means to ensure the completeness and currency of the plan is to also seek the advice of the MOSRRG. This sub-committee will therefore be asked, on occasion, to audit the National Plan with terms of reference similar to section 325 reviews of spill incidents and report their findings to the Director. The On-Scene Commander The Act provides for suitable, qualified people to be appointed either as a regional or national Onscene Commander (OSC). The Director is responsible both for appointing each NOSC, and qualifying personnel for appointment by regional councils of each ROSC. All OSCs will be provided with a warrant card as evidence of their identity and statutory authority under which they are acting. In order to combat marine oil spills successfully Part 23 of the Act provides OSCs with clear direction as to their responsibilities and with a wide range of statutory powers. For any oil spill the OSC should: • Minimise, and where possible, prevent further pollution from the marine oil spill; • Take whatever measures necessary to disperse, contain and recover, or clean up the oil spill in accordance with the relevant contingency plan. The OSC should, where practical, take the following general course of action: • Take any necessary steps, including sampling, to identify the source of the spill; • Prevent any imminent spill from occurring; • Prevent further spillage from occurring; • Minimise, and where possible, prevent the spread of pollution; • Mitigate any harmful effects of the spill; • Protect threatened resources, areas and species; • Monitor the effects of the spill; • Consider the advice of appropriately qualified technical experts; • Clean up and remove the pollution; • Dispose of the waste appropriately. Under both the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (HSE) and the Act, the OSC must ensure the health and safety of the public, responders, and any personnel associated with the spiller. Under section 327 of the Act, when an OSC, or any person working with an OSC, has acted in good faith in the performance of their duties in responding to an oil spill, they are protected from liability for any loss or damage to property caused by their actions. There is a wide range of actions that the OSC may decide to take in respect of a marine oil spill. These powers are set out in section 305 and 311 of the Maritime Transport Act, and include the power to direct the master or owner of a New Zealand ship to do or stop doing anything that they consider necessary or desirable to control or clean up the spill. Spill Notification and Reporting Initial Notification Where there is an actual or probable spill of oil into the marine environment it is the responsibility of the spiller to notify either Maritime New Zealand (through the Rescue Co-ordination Centre) or the appropriate regional council, by the quickest means possible. Maritime New Zealand and all regional councils will provide 24-hour contact telephone numbers for marine oil pollution incidents. Reporting a marine oil spill incident in no way implies an admission of guilt, but failure to report an incident is clearly an offence. Regional councils should also notify Maritime New Zealand whenever they respond to a marine spill. 14
The obligation to report actual or probable discharges of oil in breach of the marine protection rules or resource management regulations applies to all vessels, not just those that are required to have shipboard contingency plans. Format Existing standard international oil spill notification formats and procedures for shipping, other maritime industries and commercial aviation should be followed whenever possible. Maritime New Zealand will provide regional councils with an appropriate format for this notification, based on international standards. However, sufficient flexibility should be maintained for both the ROSC and Maritime New Zealand to meet their respective requirements. Other agencies, including but not limited to, the Police, Fire Service, Coastguard, coastal radio stations (national and local), port companies, Civil Aviation Authority, Department of Conservation and New Zealand Defence Force, may also be notified of a marine oil spill by the public. These agencies will be provided with information on the appropriate communication channels and formats for oil spill reports. Spill Assessment and Response Assignment It is the responsibility of the incident controller (at Tier 1) and the OSC (at Tiers 2 & 3) to assess and evaluate information provided at the time of the initial notification of a spill. In every case a decision needs to be made as early as possible about the appropriate size of the response and the appropriate level of command and control. There are a number of factors that can influence these decisions, and to ensure that there is minimal chance of confusion, these factors should be clearly defined in the contingency plans. These can be referred to as ‘response escalation criteria’. Response Escalation Criteria The Act requires, in sections 299 and 300, that the person responsible for implementing the contingency plan (incident controller at Tier 1 or regional OSC at Tier 2) notify either the regional OSC or national OSC respectively, if containing and cleaning-up the spill is or may be beyond the capacity of the resources available to them. There are many reasons why a responder at one level may find that they are unable to adequately respond to a spill: • Size of the spill – the volume of oil spilled (or likely to be spilled) may be beyond the resources, equipment or expertise immediately available to the response agency; • Character of the oil – the type of oil may be one for which specialist response expertise or equipment is needed; • Location of the spill – the location of the spill may be difficult to reach, may require specialised equipment, or may be well offshore; • Nature or extent of the impact of the oil – any combination of oil type and character, spill location, environmental conditions, shoreline type, and proximity to sensitive resources could influence the size of any impact created; • Country of registration of the ship; • Potential for further spillage – the nature of the incident (grounding, collision, accidental discharge, etc) could play a role in determining the likelihood of a spill or further spills, as could the size of the ship; • Cost of response – oil spill response can involve the expenditure of large amounts of money, which, depending on the spiller, can take some time to recover. Maritime New Zealand maintains agreements with regions about the cost of responses at which the region expects escalation to Tier 3. An escalation of a response will generally occur when one of two factors is present: • When the cost begins to exceed stipulated limits for Tier 1 or 2, or • When a decision is made by either the OSC or Maritime New Zealand to escalate the response effort. An escalation will result in greater resources and funding for application to an oil spill response. Response De-escalation Once a spill response has been formally escalated to the next level, then responsibility for control remains with the higher agency (or OSC) until the response is terminated. A spill response cannot be 15
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 14 and 15: All vessels that meet the criteria
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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