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  • 2008 September 24

    Petersburg-style response to oil spills

    On September 18, St. Petersburg Committee for Use of Natural Resources and Environment Protection held an exercise on oil spill recovery with application of new equipment and methods. The exercise was held in a shallow-water difficult-to-access district. It was for the first time for scientists and volunteers to participate.  The technique used for recovery of the supposed spill was provided by state unitary enterprises subordinate to the Committee.

     

    Exercise legend

     

    According to the legend, on September 18 the following information was obtained by the Committee’s alert center: an oil tanker was split close to Lisi Nos village causing a spill of 10 tonnes of heavy fuel oil in the sea. Oil spill response activities were to be completed within 6 hours: from the moment information was obtained till «debriefing». The means of the following state unitary enterprises were involved: Lenvodkhoz, Ecostroi, PILARN and SSZ Spetstrans.

    The main task of the exercise was to coordinate activities of environmental emergency services of the city. Such events are regularly held according to the Committee’s Plan on Oil Spill Response and Prevention (OSR Plan).

    Response activities were commenced with helicopter survey. This practice is in the Committee’s use for 2 years already. Upon determination of the spill scale the work was started by oil-spill boats Dozor and Zaslon. They placed an initial line of slick bars around the tanker which hit the ground and started collecting of spilled oil products. According to the exercisescenario the spill moved further. Due to shallow depth the vessels could not come closer to the shore than 60 meters so an amphibian platform Truksor was involved. “Our major task is to prevent the spill from reaching the shore of a specially protected natural area,” Igor Berezin, exercise executive said. For that purpose, two off-road vehicles placed the second line of slick bars.

    When part of the heavy fuel oil nevertheless reached the shore emergency response teams placed reservoirs for waste and a pump for liquid oil products. Oil-spill boats Minimax-10 and Rock Cleaner cleaned the stones and the sand while Truksor started cutting the reeds. The activities were finished by a slump-pump automobile collecting liquid waste for disposal. The waste is supposed to be taken to the Krasny Bor landfill.

     

    Oil products in hard-to-reach places

     

    The coast of the Gulf of Finland is 290 kilometers long. Its cleaning is a serious problem nowadays. Within the city water area some 60-70 oil spills are registered annually. Part of 250 tonnes of oil products entering water every year reach the shore.  As PortNews IAA learnt from Igor Berezin, head of Committee’s Nature Protection Department, contaminated shore earlier used to be cleaned manually. Shallow waters and marshy lands were also difficult to reach. Response activities are now carried out through application of new equipment purchased by the city for the Committee’s emergency services during last 5 years. According to Mr. Berezin, the Committee and subordinate SUEs are capable of collecting 50 tonnes of oil products at any territory.

    Multifunctional self-propelled amphibian platform Truksor is the main acquisition of the ecological fleet. It was purchased for PiLARN SUE in November 2007 and tested on September 16 exercise. The platform works at water, land and crashed ice. It is capable of cutting reeds, collecting weeds and oil.

    In late 2009, ecological fleet of St. Petersburg will get an icebreaking tug-boat Nevskaya Zastava laid down in December 2007 at Almaz shipyard. As PortNews IAA learnt from Vasili Gromov, head of PiLARN emergency service, it is a unique vessel capable of operating in any period of a year or a day in urban conditions (under bridges, for example). It is the only vessel of this type in Russia today. The icebreaker will be used for elimination of ice blocks, assistance of Neva navigation, firefighting and cleaning of water area. Equipment of the municipal ecological fleet is carried out within the framework of a special-target program on oil spill response development (2008-2011).

     

     

    Students and scientists to help

     

    Now cleaning operations are to be controlled by both emergency service experts and scientists.

    “We have been cooperating with the MakarovMarineAcademy for many years already. It is fitted with a special training center for a digital processing of oil spill information.  The Academy experts will carry out on-line supervision of the events, make forecasts based on computer simulation and provide consulting services.

    One of the exercise’s goals was to train organization of volunteers’ work.  In Russia volunteers are to be involved for the first time.  As Mr. Berezin put it, earlier there were no worked out ways of cooperation. Volunteers couldbevery useful when saving animals. Nowadays, this work is not arranged by state services though in the nearest future the Committee will purchase special equipment for bird cleaning, Berezin says.

    “Currently the Committee develops cooperation with specialized educational institutions and public organizations. In the nearest future we plan opening of centers for training of volunteers and ecology students with participation of the Academy teachers on the basis of PiLARN, the Committee expert on nature management Aleksandr Dmitriev said.

     

    Maria Favorskaya

     

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