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Response
Exercise "Barossa"
- Adelaide
11 June 1998
3.1 Notification
At 0257 hrs (CST) Thursday 11 June 1998 the Panamanian tanker Southern Mist carrying 52,000 tonnes of light Arabian crude oil, ran aground close to the southern side of the outer harbour breakwater at Port Adelaide after suffering a complete loss of power to the steering machinery. Initial indications were that the ship had suffered bottom damage and approximately 300 tonnes of crude oil had leaked into the sea.
The Master informed Port Control accordingly and advised that the vessel had grounded and that there was a strong smell of oil. He later advised Harbour Control that the vessel had been holed and that there had been a loss of oil cargo of approximately 300 tonnes which subsequently increased to 500 tonnes.
3.2 Initial Response plan
This was developed by the On Scene Co-ordinator and covered the following:
- Personnel and materials for the initial response prior to daybreak.
- Deployment of booms in the Outer Harbour to prevent oil moving up river and booms placed across the entrance to North Haven and Royal SA Yacht Squadron.
- Booming of strategic resources as well as around the damaged tanker.
- Activation of observation aircraft.
- Spraying of dispersant.
3.3 Action Plan for Foreshore Cleanup
Assessments were made of the foreshore between Semaphore Jetty and the Southern Outer Harbour breakwater. Also, equipment and personnel requirements for the foreshore clean up were identified.
The beaches were divided up into sections and the clean up method for the four areas was the same, namely:
- Put a grader onto the beach and move the oiled sea grass and sand above the high tide mark.
- Have a vacuum truck remove the free oil residing in pools along the beach length, providing the beach is able to sustain the weight of the truck.
- Have front-end loader assist the grader and load into trucks for transportation.
- Have a crew of 10 people and a supervisor to rake up "spots" into plastic bags.
- Decontamination areas to be identified and set up for clean transfer from shore to public areas i.e. Largs Jetty car park.
- Police/Security to monitor public access to oiled areas.
- Dawn inspection regarding assessment of clean up requirements.
3.4 State Support
At 0455 (CST) the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) was activated in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedures. A briefing of key members of the State Disaster Committee (SDC) by the State Spill Commander took place at 1000 (CST), with a request for the SEOC to:
- develop an Air Logistics Support Contingency Plan with the RAAF, if commercial aircraft were not available, to uplift equipment resources and consumables from AMOSC;
- arrange for a minimum of 300 persons, including 30 supervisors, to undertake foreshore cleanup commencing the next day;
- provide logistic and welfare support for foreshore cleanup crews.
At 1600 (CST) the State Spill Commander and his advisers attended SEOC and briefed the SDC Chair and Committee members, including representatives of the Defence Forces and Local Government, on the situation. Defence advised that two C130 Hercules aircraft were available ex Richmond to uplift AMOSC equipment from Laverton. The SDC advised that it had sourced personnel for foreshore cleanup commencing 0800 (CST) the next day. Administrative arrangements for submitting accounts, and the availability of a Treasury financial line for settlement of accounts, were addressed.
The meetings with SDC successfully achieved the objective of involving all agencies of the States infrastructure in supporting the response to a major marine oil spill.