Posted: 15 April 2005
Oil spill exercise tests new equipment
New oil spill equipment will get its first trial run in a full exercise involving up to 32 people in the Whangarei Harbour next week (Tuesday 19 April).
Local authority staff from as far afield as the South Island are expected to take part in Tuesday’s Port Whangarei exercise, which is being organised by the Northland Regional Council, the Maritime Safety Authority and the New Zealand Refining Company.
Northland Regional Council Regional Harbourmaster Ian Niblock says the exercise will allow oil spill emergency response teams to further familiarise themselves with regional response equipment stored at Marsden Pt, including the new skimming barge ‘Taranui’ that was launched recently.
“The exercise is an exciting opportunity for members of the regional and national response teams to work together and exercise the new skimmer barge alongside equipment from within the region and national response equipment from the National Oil Spill Service Centre in Auckland,’’ Mr Niblock says.
During the day, participants will have the chance to practise deploying and retrieving 200m of Ro-Boom, a five-tonne Tow tank, a10-tonne Dracone Sea Slug, a Terminator skimmer and the skimming barge Taranui.
The boom equipment is used to contain and deflect slicks so they don’t spread further, the skimmer and skimming barge collect oil and the tow tank and sea slug are used to transfer collected oil to storage sites on shore, prior to final disposal. Seawater instead of oil will be collected during the exercise.
Other organisations taking part in the exercise include North Tugz, Marlborough District Council, Auckland Regional Council and Taranaki Regional Council.
The oil spill exercise is being held on Tuesday, April 19 from 9am at the Main Number 3 Wharf, Port Rd, Port Whangarei.