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US oil spill certificate databank
Volume 30/Number 2/February 1995
Pakistan's Environmental Protection Agency agreed to allow the installation of the plant on condition the company abided by 1993 national environment quality standards. However, according to a recent report in Chemical Engineering, Pakistan's senate committee on environment and urban affairs intend to draft a law banning the import of hazardous materials including plants and equipment into Pakistan. The Committee also advised Ravi Alkalis Ltd not to import the equipment since Pakistan still lacks adequate waste disposal systems. The Danish plant is owned by D S Industries ApS (Copenhagen) and has had a chequered history already. The chloralkali process results in effluent containing mercury, and in the 1960s and 1970s the plant was notorious for exceeding water emission limits. In recent years it has met all environmental regulations, however with the approach of the 2010 Paris Commission's deadline for phasing out mercury-based chloralkali processes, the company decided to shut the plant down for financial and political reasons. Earlier in 1994 the plant equipment was classified by Copenhagen's Environmental Protection Agency as hazardous material. However, under Danish law the equipment would not be considered hazardous if it were reopened or rebuilt and used as Ravi Alkali Ltd intends. Greenpeace International claim that by shipping the plant to Pakistan, D S Industries would save the enormous cost of scrapping the equipment in Denmark, whose environmental regulations are among the most stringent in the world.
Environmental Insurance for Antarctica? A meeting in the Hague failed to reach agreement on an addition to the Environmental Protocol under the Antarctic Treaty which would have imposed strict legal liability on operators for environmental damage. The Environmental Protocol was originally signed in 1991 (see Mar. Pollut. Bull. 22, 578) and established a number of rules to protect Antarctica's fragile ecosystems, though it has not yet come into force as it has, so far, only been ratified by ten nations. The addition to the protocol would have made all private and governmental organizations active in Antarctica financially responsible for any environmental damage their operations may cause. Such organizations would thus be compelled to obtain full insurance cover against such damages which would, in turn, force them to exercise greater care for the environment. Operators may also have to contribute to an environmental protection fund. However, the rules would only apply to organizations and operators which are accountable to governments that are party to the Antarctic Treaty. This weakness is illustrated by the fact that the majority of the cruise ships operating in Antarctica sail under flags of convenience, therefore their operators would not be
liable for damages if the country to which the ship is registered is not bound by the Protocol, even if the operator's country is bound. Concern has also been expressed that the devolution of responsibility to individual operators may reduce the responsibility of territorial nations. The need for such protection was highlighted by an 80 000 1 spill of fuel oil from Argentina's scientific research base which occurred in July last year. Scientists raced to recover the oil contaminated snow before the thaw, which would have released the oil into the marine ecosystem. Had the proposed measures been in place, a full clean-up operation could have been launched. It is hoped that negotiations on the addition to the Protocol will continue this year, and that the sixteen consultative nations that have not yet ratified the Protocol will do so soon.
PETER JONES
More Concern over Radioactive Waste Greenpeace are continuing the campaign against transporting nuclear waste by sea, backed by a recent report by Edwin Lyman, a physicist at Princeton University, New Jersey. The report, commissioned by Greenpeace, questions the safety of existing standards for the transport of vitrified high level radioactive waste and finds that, in the event o f a high-temperature long-duration fire, there is a real possibility of substantial release of radioactive material. The study concludes that there are enough serious questions regarding the safety of sea transport to justify postponement of a proposed shipment of reprocessed spent fuel from France to Japan in February. Most of the concern centres on the ability of containment casks to withstand prolonged high temperatures in the event of a shipboard fire. Lyman's work has shown that the casks which are only required to be tested at 800°C for 30 min, would be unlikely to withstand a fire of 1000°C for a day, a situation which is not uncommon in shipboard fires. In such conditions, the elastomer seals on the casks would fail within a couple of hours and a few hours after that, the vitrified waste would reach a temperature at which it would start to emit radioactive caesium gas. British Nuclear Fuels, which owns 60% of Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd, the company handling the Japanese shlpment, says the report seems to be based on dubious science and raises no new issues. The February shipment will be the first in a series of about 30 planned over the next fifteen years.
US Oil Spill Certificate Databank The US Coast Guard National Pollution Funds Centre (NPFC) has launched a databank of tankers that have 101
Marine Pollution Bulletin
qualified for new oil spill Certificates of Financial Responsibility (Coff). The database has been set up to enable the NPFC to respond to requests for lists of qualified tankers as quickly and efficiently as possible and is an expansion of the US Coast Guard Navigation Information Service Bulletin Board System (NIS/BBS) to include the most frequently sought data relating to OPA90-Cofr holders. The list will be updated by the NPFC daily and will contain the names of all self-propelled tankers that have qualified under OPA90 for a new Colt, their flag state, gross tonnage and name and address of their owner or operator. However, the listing does not necessarily confirm a vessel's compliance with other applicable documentation such as safety, construction or pollution prevention requirements. The new database is accessible by modem.
El Salvador
News-in-Brief
USA
Saudi Arabia The Ministry of Agriculture and Water in Saudi Arabia is planning to establish an aquaculture research centre. The decision follows an extensive feasibility study carried out by Akraplan-niva, a Norwegian consultancy in co-operation with a Riyadh-based architectural and engineering company, Omrania and Associates. The centre will concentrate its research on tilapia, carp, Nile perch and catfish and will give access to a wide range of top modem aquacultural facilities, including indoor and outdoor tanks, water treatment plants, advanced chemical and veterinary laboratories, educational facilities and a quarantine unit.
102
There has been an oil spill in the port area of Acatjutla caused by a blockage in the pipes going to sludge separation tanks at a local electric power station. The quantity of oil spilled is not known but at least 1.5 km of beach is severely oiled. None of the oil went out to sea and the extent of environmental impact has not been established.
Uruguay A spillage of light crude oil threatened a sealion rookery on Lobos Island near Jose Ignacio. The spill occurred whilst the ore/oil carrier Marium was discharging its cargo, forming a slick one mile long, 300 to 400 yards wide. A local state-owned fuel administration (ANCAP) dispatched support craft from Jose Ignacio and Punta del Este which sprayed dispersant which caused much of the crude to sink, the rest was blown out to sea and broke up into smaller patches before disappearing.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have listed the Kootenai River white sturgeon as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The species is found in a 168 mile stretch of the Kootenai River and Kootenay Lake in Idaho, Montana and British Columbia. These white sturgeon are considered a genetically distinct interbreeding population that have been isolated from other white sturgeon populations in the Columbia basin for 10 000 years. However, by 1990 the population had declined to around 880 individuals, with few individuals younger than 20 years old. Virtually no recruitment of juvenile white sturgeon has occurred in the population since the mid-1970s.
Pakistan's Environmental Protection Agency agreed to allow the installation of the plant on condition the company abided by 1993 national environment quality standards. However, according to a recent report in Chemical Engineering, Pakistan's senate committee on environment and urban affairs intend to draft a law banning the import of hazardous materials including plants and equipment into Pakistan. The Committee also advised Ravi Alkalis Ltd not to import the equipment since Pakistan still lacks adequate waste disposal systems. The Danish plant is owned by D S Industries ApS (Copenhagen) and has had a chequered history already. The chloralkali process results in effluent containing mercury, and in the 1960s and 1970s the plant was notorious for exceeding water emission limits. In recent years it has met all environmental regulations, however with the approach of the 2010 Paris Commission's deadline for phasing out mercury-based chloralkali processes, the company decided to shut the plant down for financial and political reasons. Earlier in 1994 the plant equipment was classified by Copenhagen's Environmental Protection Agency as hazardous material. However, under Danish law the equipment would not be considered hazardous if it were reopened or rebuilt and used as Ravi Alkali Ltd intends. Greenpeace International claim that by shipping the plant to Pakistan, D S Industries would save the enormous cost of scrapping the equipment in Denmark, whose environmental regulations are among the most stringent in the world.
Environmental Insurance for Antarctica? A meeting in the Hague failed to reach agreement on an addition to the Environmental Protocol under the Antarctic Treaty which would have imposed strict legal liability on operators for environmental damage. The Environmental Protocol was originally signed in 1991 (see Mar. Pollut. Bull. 22, 578) and established a number of rules to protect Antarctica's fragile ecosystems, though it has not yet come into force as it has, so far, only been ratified by ten nations. The addition to the protocol would have made all private and governmental organizations active in Antarctica financially responsible for any environmental damage their operations may cause. Such organizations would thus be compelled to obtain full insurance cover against such damages which would, in turn, force them to exercise greater care for the environment. Operators may also have to contribute to an environmental protection fund. However, the rules would only apply to organizations and operators which are accountable to governments that are party to the Antarctic Treaty. This weakness is illustrated by the fact that the majority of the cruise ships operating in Antarctica sail under flags of convenience, therefore their operators would not be
liable for damages if the country to which the ship is registered is not bound by the Protocol, even if the operator's country is bound. Concern has also been expressed that the devolution of responsibility to individual operators may reduce the responsibility of territorial nations. The need for such protection was highlighted by an 80 000 1 spill of fuel oil from Argentina's scientific research base which occurred in July last year. Scientists raced to recover the oil contaminated snow before the thaw, which would have released the oil into the marine ecosystem. Had the proposed measures been in place, a full clean-up operation could have been launched. It is hoped that negotiations on the addition to the Protocol will continue this year, and that the sixteen consultative nations that have not yet ratified the Protocol will do so soon.
PETER JONES
More Concern over Radioactive Waste Greenpeace are continuing the campaign against transporting nuclear waste by sea, backed by a recent report by Edwin Lyman, a physicist at Princeton University, New Jersey. The report, commissioned by Greenpeace, questions the safety of existing standards for the transport of vitrified high level radioactive waste and finds that, in the event o f a high-temperature long-duration fire, there is a real possibility of substantial release of radioactive material. The study concludes that there are enough serious questions regarding the safety of sea transport to justify postponement of a proposed shipment of reprocessed spent fuel from France to Japan in February. Most of the concern centres on the ability of containment casks to withstand prolonged high temperatures in the event of a shipboard fire. Lyman's work has shown that the casks which are only required to be tested at 800°C for 30 min, would be unlikely to withstand a fire of 1000°C for a day, a situation which is not uncommon in shipboard fires. In such conditions, the elastomer seals on the casks would fail within a couple of hours and a few hours after that, the vitrified waste would reach a temperature at which it would start to emit radioactive caesium gas. British Nuclear Fuels, which owns 60% of Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd, the company handling the Japanese shlpment, says the report seems to be based on dubious science and raises no new issues. The February shipment will be the first in a series of about 30 planned over the next fifteen years.
US Oil Spill Certificate Databank The US Coast Guard National Pollution Funds Centre (NPFC) has launched a databank of tankers that have 101
Marine Pollution Bulletin
qualified for new oil spill Certificates of Financial Responsibility (Coff). The database has been set up to enable the NPFC to respond to requests for lists of qualified tankers as quickly and efficiently as possible and is an expansion of the US Coast Guard Navigation Information Service Bulletin Board System (NIS/BBS) to include the most frequently sought data relating to OPA90-Cofr holders. The list will be updated by the NPFC daily and will contain the names of all self-propelled tankers that have qualified under OPA90 for a new Colt, their flag state, gross tonnage and name and address of their owner or operator. However, the listing does not necessarily confirm a vessel's compliance with other applicable documentation such as safety, construction or pollution prevention requirements. The new database is accessible by modem.
El Salvador
News-in-Brief
USA
Saudi Arabia The Ministry of Agriculture and Water in Saudi Arabia is planning to establish an aquaculture research centre. The decision follows an extensive feasibility study carried out by Akraplan-niva, a Norwegian consultancy in co-operation with a Riyadh-based architectural and engineering company, Omrania and Associates. The centre will concentrate its research on tilapia, carp, Nile perch and catfish and will give access to a wide range of top modem aquacultural facilities, including indoor and outdoor tanks, water treatment plants, advanced chemical and veterinary laboratories, educational facilities and a quarantine unit.
102
There has been an oil spill in the port area of Acatjutla caused by a blockage in the pipes going to sludge separation tanks at a local electric power station. The quantity of oil spilled is not known but at least 1.5 km of beach is severely oiled. None of the oil went out to sea and the extent of environmental impact has not been established.
Uruguay A spillage of light crude oil threatened a sealion rookery on Lobos Island near Jose Ignacio. The spill occurred whilst the ore/oil carrier Marium was discharging its cargo, forming a slick one mile long, 300 to 400 yards wide. A local state-owned fuel administration (ANCAP) dispatched support craft from Jose Ignacio and Punta del Este which sprayed dispersant which caused much of the crude to sink, the rest was blown out to sea and broke up into smaller patches before disappearing.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have listed the Kootenai River white sturgeon as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The species is found in a 168 mile stretch of the Kootenai River and Kootenay Lake in Idaho, Montana and British Columbia. These white sturgeon are considered a genetically distinct interbreeding population that have been isolated from other white sturgeon populations in the Columbia basin for 10 000 years. However, by 1990 the population had declined to around 880 individuals, with few individuals younger than 20 years old. Virtually no recruitment of juvenile white sturgeon has occurred in the population since the mid-1970s.