Councils not ready for big sea spill
Some of biggest shortfalls in regions with most oil drilling, reports Jamie Morton
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ewer than half of the nation’s councils have enough staff trained to respond to oil spills at sea — prompting queries over whether authorities are prepared to deal with a major leak.
According to Maritime New Zealand, only 47 per cent of regional councils have trained responders at or above 80 per cent of the recommended number — and some of the biggest shortfalls are in regions with the most oil drilling and exploration.
Waikato Wellington Tasman/Nelson Hawkes bay Otago Auckland Southland Gisborne Marlborough Taranaki Bay of Plenty Canterbury Northland Chatham Islands West Coast 106%* 100% 91% 90% 90% 87% 81% 75% 70% 69% 65% 63% 57% 50% 50%
Written responses provided to the Green Party by Transport Minister Simon Bridges showed Canterbury, Gisborne and Taranaki respectively had 63 per cent, 75 per cent and 69 per cent of the recommended number of responders.
The West Coast and the Chatham Islands, each with 50 per cent of the quota, and Northland, at 57 per cent, had lower numbers still.
But Bridges and Maritime NZ say there are enough resources to deal with an oil spill — and capacity is being reviewed.
In line with international practice, New Zealand’s spill response system operates in a three-tier system, where “Tier 1” responses are led by industry.
Under law and strict requirements, all vessels, oil-transfer sites and offshore installations have to provide a marine oil spill contingency plan and prove they have the measures in place to deal with a spill.
But in “Tier 2” situations, where spills are too large for operators to deal with or where no responsible party can be identified, regional councils must step in and each must have its own contingency plan.
In reply to the Greens, Bridges said the recommended numbers of oil spill responders for each region were set before 2000 — when the combined area subject to exploration and mining permits was 1445sq km, compared with 126,865sq km today.
But Maritime NZ had been assessing the recommended numbers and was due to finish that by the end of the year, he said.
Greens energy spokesman Gareth Hughes said the review was no excuse for not meeting current targets.
“Oil-spill preparedness is not something we should be cutting corners on. Why would we put our beaches, our marine life and our fishing industries at risk for a few dollars here and there?”
If smaller regions were struggling to meet requirements, the Government “should be more proactive supporting them because an oil spill affects the whole country”, he said.
“The Rena disaster showed us we have to be prepared — catastrophic oil spills can and do happen in New Zealand.”
But Bridges said Maritime NZ was satisfied regions had enough trained responders to respond to Tier 2 incidents and NZ’s tally of regionally trained responders was sufficient to support a Tier 3, or national, response.
The agency also told the Herald “we have agreements with international partners to augment New Zealand’s capability at any time”.