Rena Leaves 60ks Of Oily Coastline

in General by Jon C — October 14, 2011 at 8:11 am | 0 comments

There are now 60 kilometres of oiled coastline, from Maketu to Mount Maunganui due to the 350 tonnes of oil leaked from the Rena.

The oiling ranges in severity.

Predicted westerly winds will push oil away from the beaches today but will extend the area of the oil spill response out to the east.

Beach access has been restricted between Mount Maunganui to Maketu Point, including the Maketu Estuary.

A total of 95.45 tonnes of solid waste and 6 tonnes of liquid waste was taken to the transfer station by 5pm yesterday.

Volunteers officially begin work today helping with the cleanup although frustrated angry residents have been ignoring the authorities for days and have been out on the beach.

More than 2500 people have registered through a new site set up yesterday. This equates to about 200 people registering per hour. People can also register to volunteer at the Omanu, Papamoa and Mount Maunganui surf clubs.

The Rena status

Salvage teams have worked overnight to build a platform, which they intend to attach to the port side of the vessel today.

They will then use this platform to assist fuel recovery operations.

Two teams of three will be winched on to the vessel this morning. Evacuation teams remain on standby to evacuate these teams if required.

Authorities call it a “challenging and potentially dangerous job.”

There is a strong wind warning advisory in place and the westerly is expected to increase to 25-30 knots, this may hamper salvage operations.

The Rena continues to have a 22 degree list but no change has been deteced overnight.

Containers

88 containers have been reported to have fallen off the ship. 20 of these have come ashore. The salvage company, Svitzer have identified 35 of these, and 14 have been recovered.

A container containing dangerous goods that has been lost from the Rena “is not considered a significant health risk.” The container contains Alkylsuphonic liquid (UN2586), which is water soluble.

MNZ National On Scene Commander Nick Quinn says that “it may cause some localised effects to the seabed – we will be monitoring this.”

Google does not find anything significant of that spelling but if this is what he is talking about (spelling similar) , it says it’s toxic and combustible.

Wildlife

500 dead birds have been collected.

There were 10 live oiled birds found yesterday , bringing the total number of oiled live birds in the facility to 51. There were five dotterels pre-emptively caught yesterday, taking the total to 13 dotterels in captivity. None of these are oiled.

There are only about 1500 dotterels in existence. A special aviary is being built at the wildlife facility to cater to the needs of these rare birds. The team is catching adult birds. They can live for 25 years and although eggs are being abandoned they will be able to breed again next year. Any chicks will be recovered.

On Motiti Island, eight little blue penguins were found including three chicks. The chicks are safe with no oiling, and are being taken to the wildlife centre where a creche is being set up for them.

Tags: Rena oil spill