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UK brings in pollution controls
Volume 13/Number 4/April 1982
"Tell me again how King Canute sat by the sea and ordered the oil slicks and all the rubbish to go back, dad."
UK Brings in Pollution Controls After eight years of inaction, the British Government has finally decided to implement stricter controls on water pollution laid down in the 1974 Control of Pollution Act. From next July Regional Water Authorities will begin issuing consents for existing unlicensed discharges into tidal water and estuaries. Penalties for failing to comply with the provisions of the Act will come into force one year later. But one of the Act's more far-reaching provisions which requires all water authorities to keep public registers of discharges will not be enforced until 1984. A Government spokesman said that implementation of the Act would be 'virtually complete' by mid 1986. This qualification takes into account the fact that, at present, it does not intend to activate provisions on waste dumped into the sea by ships or on trade effluents discharged into sewers.
Clean Caribbean Talks Start With international legislation already framed by a small group of legal experts, the UNEP Monitoring Committee of the Caribbean Action Plan has held its first meeting in New York to discuss oil spill control measures and environmental health. The development of contingency plans and exchange of technology is expected to be based on programmes established in other enclosed seas such as the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. Representatives and observers from the Caribbean
States, France, the Netherlands, the UK and the US who met in New York discussed a relatively modest environmental programme for the forthcoming year which included projects on watershed management, environmental law, education and training. Cost for the first year is expected to be in the region of $3 million. The US has not yet pledged a contribution to the voluntary programme but it is hoped that the Reagan administration will make a financial committment of $500 000.
New York Spill Clean-up A rough docking in high seas is believed to have caused a 10ocm long fracture in a fuel tank on a Texaco barge which spilled about 15 000 gallons of oil into the Upper Bay of New York Harbour. Rough wave conditions prevented containment of the oil which spilled during loading operations off Brooklyn. Texaco workers deployed 250 m of boom with a 24-inch skirt around the barge and the tanker Texaco Connecticut which had been off-loading the fuel. Most of the fuel escaped or sank because of the low temperatures. About 15 overflights were conducted and during the first, around 1200 gallons of oil were sighted on the Brooklyn shoreline between the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and Owls Head Park, a stretch of 2.5 kin, and lesser deposits of oil on the Gateway National Recreation Area beach on Staten Island. On another overflight oil was also sighted as far north as Governor's Island and south of Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Gravesend Bay. The oil along the Brooklyn shore was absorbed by 3000 m of boom and sorbent pads and boom was also deployed along nearby Coney Island as a preventative measure. 111
"Tell me again how King Canute sat by the sea and ordered the oil slicks and all the rubbish to go back, dad."
UK Brings in Pollution Controls After eight years of inaction, the British Government has finally decided to implement stricter controls on water pollution laid down in the 1974 Control of Pollution Act. From next July Regional Water Authorities will begin issuing consents for existing unlicensed discharges into tidal water and estuaries. Penalties for failing to comply with the provisions of the Act will come into force one year later. But one of the Act's more far-reaching provisions which requires all water authorities to keep public registers of discharges will not be enforced until 1984. A Government spokesman said that implementation of the Act would be 'virtually complete' by mid 1986. This qualification takes into account the fact that, at present, it does not intend to activate provisions on waste dumped into the sea by ships or on trade effluents discharged into sewers.
Clean Caribbean Talks Start With international legislation already framed by a small group of legal experts, the UNEP Monitoring Committee of the Caribbean Action Plan has held its first meeting in New York to discuss oil spill control measures and environmental health. The development of contingency plans and exchange of technology is expected to be based on programmes established in other enclosed seas such as the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. Representatives and observers from the Caribbean
States, France, the Netherlands, the UK and the US who met in New York discussed a relatively modest environmental programme for the forthcoming year which included projects on watershed management, environmental law, education and training. Cost for the first year is expected to be in the region of $3 million. The US has not yet pledged a contribution to the voluntary programme but it is hoped that the Reagan administration will make a financial committment of $500 000.
New York Spill Clean-up A rough docking in high seas is believed to have caused a 10ocm long fracture in a fuel tank on a Texaco barge which spilled about 15 000 gallons of oil into the Upper Bay of New York Harbour. Rough wave conditions prevented containment of the oil which spilled during loading operations off Brooklyn. Texaco workers deployed 250 m of boom with a 24-inch skirt around the barge and the tanker Texaco Connecticut which had been off-loading the fuel. Most of the fuel escaped or sank because of the low temperatures. About 15 overflights were conducted and during the first, around 1200 gallons of oil were sighted on the Brooklyn shoreline between the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and Owls Head Park, a stretch of 2.5 kin, and lesser deposits of oil on the Gateway National Recreation Area beach on Staten Island. On another overflight oil was also sighted as far north as Governor's Island and south of Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Gravesend Bay. The oil along the Brooklyn shore was absorbed by 3000 m of boom and sorbent pads and boom was also deployed along nearby Coney Island as a preventative measure. 111