With help from our specialist Counter Pollution and Salvage (CPS) Team, a part of HM Coastguard, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions.
• What sort of incidents count as ‘pollution’?
The CPS Team defines “pollution” for its work as “any substance that could be damaging to the marine environment”.
That includes lumps of wax washed onto a beach; plastics, timber or other substances lost from shipping containers or lost overboard from a vessel; or an oil tanker running onto rocks.
Sometimes pollution reports come to the CPS Team from a witness or the polluter themselves, normally via an HM Coastguard Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre. Other times they are reported to another agency which then shares the information.
• Whose job is it to respond to maritime pollution?
The UK is responsible for overseeing counter-pollution within its Exclusive Economic Zone which reaches up to 200 nautical miles from land. HM Coastguard should be the first call for the public reporting incidents by the coast.
If there’s a big incident at sea where the UK has a duty to react, the CPS Team are available 24/7. They will be at the frontline and will lead the response to in order to control and minimise the impacts of any pollution.
Which organisation takes the lead in other situations depends on exactly where it has happened and how. Public agencies will often work together to respond but, no matter who has primary responsibility, HM Coastguard is always ready to act, monitor and support.
• So, who else might deal with a maritime pollution incident?
A local port or harbour authority will have a duty to respond within areas they control. They usually have their own counter pollution equipment to deploy, sometimes with the help of an oil spill response contractor with the right expertise and additional equipment.
Commercial companies have a legal obligation to act if they cause pollution, with their responses closely scrutinised by the CPS Team and monitored by HM Coastguard.
In situations where the pollution is coming from the land onto the coast or sea, it might be an Environmental Regulator such as through the Environment Agency; the Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Natural Resources Wales; or the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
Local councils might also get involved when the incident is on their land, such as pollution that has reached the shoreline.
HM Coastguard will always log, monitor or react to reports of maritime pollution. The CPS Team will swing into full-scale action when there is a serious risk of pollution at sea, and where a rapid response is required.
• An incident has been called in. What happens next?
Imagine a vessel has grounded on rocks off the coast and its crew safely evacuated. But now oil has been spotted in the sea close to a nearby beach. A Coastguard Rescue Team would likely first be sent to the scene to report back.
If the location or source of pollution meant it was for another organisation to respond, they would be informed with an offer of advice and support from HM Coastguard and the CPS Team.
Further data could be obtained from images provided by orbiting satellites; by manned reconnaissance aircraft and drones sent up to check the area; or vessels sent to assess how it looks from the water.
Where the pollution is too great for the vessel crew or owner to handle, then it will be for the CPS Team to ensure that a response is mounted, sufficient to remove the threat to the public and the environment.
Other specialist agencies such as nature conservation bodies and fishery regulators can be called upon to assist and provide additional information to understand what impact the pollution may have on public health and the environment. They will also advise on any impacts the response itself may have to help guide the best approach.
• How does HM Coastguard and the CPS Team react when there’s pollution?
The first step would be to find out the source of the pollution. In the imagined scenario of a grounded vessel leaking pollution into the sea, that would be quickly apparent.
Key questions would be: What’s been spilled? Where will it go? What will it hit? What damage will it cause? Some of these questions can be answered by using computer models.
The most important next goal is to stop the pollution spreading and reaching land where it can cause further damage to public health, the environment, communities and economy.
To achieve this containment and begin the recovery phase, the CPS Team has a whole toolkit at its disposal:
- Booms: These are inflatable tubes hundreds of metres in length that come in a variety of sizes to suit the type of pollution and conditions. They are laid on the surface of the water to stop pollution spreading, and to make recovery of the oil possible. They may be fixed in position or towed by vessels. Some can be made of an absorbent material to soak up substances like diesel oil. Booms can be used on the shoreline to assist with recovery of oil or to protect areas by preventing oil from impacting the land. The efficiency of booming is constrained by the sea state; as it gets rougher, their efficiency rapidly decreases.
- Recovery: Recovery is achieved by using specialised mechanical devices called skimmers. As with booming, skimmers come in all different shapes, sizes and capabilities. They are designed to float on the sea surface and pump contained oil into waste storage units. As with booming, a rougher sea state diminishes the efficiency of the skimmers.
- Containment and recovery systems: Combined containment and recovery systems provide a more integrated capability, with boom and skimmer operating as a single unit. They come in different sizes and capabilities and can be matched to the operational environment. In general, they are more flexible in their uses and can cover shallow to deep offshore waters. All are towed by vessels.
- Chemical dispersion: One way to speed up the process of oil breaking up is to spray specially formulated dispersant from modified aircraft or boats. The effect is similar to the effect of washing up liquid on grease: it helps break-down the oil into very small particles which, over time, become more and more diluted, and eventually are eaten by bacteria. These chemical solutions are designed not to cause more harm to the environment than the oil would on its own if left untreated at sea. There are strict rules around the use of these chemicals which responders, including the CPS Team, must follow.
- Degradation: In smaller quantities, some oils are light enough to be significantly broken up through the technique of driving a boat through them, or by other means, to mix up the surface layer of the sea, scattering the oil into smaller drops away from the sea surface. The aim is to speed up the natural action of the waves, wind and tide. Equally, lighter oils will be quicker to degrade through evaporation and wave action.
• Why can’t you just scoop pollution out of the water?
Sometimes pollution can be collected using the types of tools described above. But that’s usually when the amounts are easily contained and readily recoverable.
Serious incidents might involve thousands of tonnes of thick oil. That happened in 1996 when, in the last major spill in UK waters, the Sea Empress tanker ran aground at Milford Haven, Wales.
It released 72,000 tonnes of crude oil cargo and 480 tonnes of fuel oil (that would have the equivalent volume of 29 Olympic swimming pools full of oil), which required the whole toolkit to be deployed.
About half of this spilled oil was chemically dispersed; another large portion naturally degraded; and about 3% was recovered at sea. Less than 7% (about 5,000 tonnes) came ashore – but it had a significant impact on the Welsh coastline involving hundreds of responders working for months to clean up the beaches over a 125-mile stretch of coast.
It’s just one of the reasons why maintaining the safety and seaworthiness of vessels is so important.
• Is a rainbow sheen on the water always a sign of serious pollution?
Preventing damage to the environment and communities is the priority of HM Coastguard’s CPS Team. But appearances, like those of a rainbow sheen on the water, can sometimes make incidents look worse than they are.
A relatively minor leak of 300 litres of commonly used diesel oil, for example – enough to fill a 4ft children’s paddling pool – can spread over an area of more than a square kilometre (equivalent to 150 football pitches) in a layer as thin as a human red blood cell: 0.0003mm.
Being lighter than water, diesel oil does not sink but instead remains on the surface to break up and evaporate – usually within days or sometimes in hours. Windy conditions speed up the process.
This scenario is not good for wildlife and surface habitats but, depending on the surroundings’ sensitivity, would be unlikely to cause long-term or significant harm.
• Who’s who in HM Coastguard’s Counter Pollution and Salvage (CPS) Team?
On standby round the clock, the CPS Team contains specialist officers who analyse the incident alongside environmental experts, assess the response required, ensure the deployment of the right resources, and manage the overall response.
When a large-scale response is required, the team calls on its dedicated pollution response stockpile and response contractor. Stockpiles of equipment and dispersant are located at sites around the UK ready to respond with a wide variety of capability which can be brought to a forward deployment site anywhere on the UK mainland within 15 hours.
• Can pollution be stopped from happening in the first place?
HM Coastguard and its CPS Team are part of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) which has hundreds of people who work every day on keeping the waters around the UK safe.
HM Coastguard keeps a 24-hour watch, monitoring shipping traffic in order to avoid dangerous situations and can, where necessary, assist vessels that might be in trouble. They can send out support vessels when needed and may use the UK’s Emergency Towing Vessel, the Ievoli Black, based in the north of Scotland. By catching problems early, escalation can often be avoided and the risk of a pollution problem reduced.
MCA surveyors up and down the UK regularly check an array of vessels – from water taxis to oil tankers – to ensure they are in the proper condition to sail safely and cleanly.
The MCA’s Regulatory Compliance Investigations Team has the power to enforce safety laws by prosecuting significant breaches of the Merchant Shipping Act.
Policymakers are always updating the regulations to help vessel owners keep up with safety requirements for new technologies, risks and conditions.
UK Government representatives are influential at the International Maritime Organization, based in London, which agrees global conventions of the seas, including the issue of pollution.
• What can be done when a vessel gets into serious trouble?
Where significant incidents involving ships or oil and gas infrastructure occur, it is likely that the Secretary of State’s Representative for Maritime Intervention and Salvage (known as SOSREP) will be informed.
The SOSREP will maintain oversight of what is being done to resolve any problems on the vessel, platform or pipeline in order to reduce the situation worsening, which includes the potential risk of pollution.
The SOSREP has the powers to make independent strategic decisions acting in the overriding public interest. He will work closely with the CPS Team and other involved public agencies when an emergency incident occurs that involves pollution, the risk of pollution and where the expertise of a salvor is needed.
