Bream Bay 'oil spill' to test authorities

A fictional spill that sends tonnes of oil from a ship on to Bream Bay’s sandy beaches will form the basis of the latest regional oil spill exercise next month. (subs: May)


The Northland Regional Council (NRC) says the finer details of the mock mid-May ‘spill’ are not being released publicly yet to ensure participants are kept on their toes and the response is as realistic as possible.


However, Regional Harbourmaster Ian Niblock says ‘Exercise Bream Bay’ is likely to play out over three days around May 10 to 15 and will involve about 30 representatives from the NRC, Maritime New Zealand, Department of Conservation and local industries.


Mr Niblock says Northland is one of the parts of New Zealand considered most at risk of a medium to large (50 tonne-plus) oil spill because it’s home to the Marsden Pt oil refinery and a large volume of commercial shipping also passes through its waters.


He says there have been a number of recent overseas events where oil has affected shorelines similar to that of Bream Bay.


“Given the potential risks of oil impacting somewhere along Bream Bay from an oil spill – either from a ship or from the refinery itself - it makes perfect sense to carry out a beach clean-up exercise there.”


Mr Niblock says exercises are a valuable training tool for all those taking part and will add to the already considerable experience of local oil spill responders.


“Typically, Northland holds two exercises a year. The last one (a water-based exercise) was held in the Marsden Pt area in December last year.”


Mr Niblock says the latest exercise will be land-based and provide an opportunity for the response team to practice their shoreline clean-up techniques.


“Most of the operational activities will be on the beach around the race course beach access point at Ruakaka.”


He says the Whangarei Racing Club has offered the use of its premises as the ‘operational hub’ of the exercise and a fully-functioning operations base will be set up there.


“This will incorporate facets such as personnel support and logistics supply and a decontamination area for response personnel and equipment.”


Mr Niblock says while obviously there will be no actual oil to recover, exercise participants will still practice a variety of beach cleaning techniques from manual labour-intensive ones through to the use of heavy machinery.


He says for security and health and safety reasons, use of the vehicle access point and access to the beach area involved will be off-limits to the general public during the exercise.


“The prohibited area will be cordoned off and it would be greatly appreciated if the public use alternative access and sections of the beach during this time.”


Mr Niblock says exercise organisers also had to seek resource consent from the Regional Council to carry out the beach cleaning works, which will see several tonnes of sand temporarily stock-piled on the beach itself.


“At the end of the exercise, all this disturbed sand will be redeposited over the excavated area and the beach re-levelled to its pre-works contour. Favourable spring tides following the exercise should ensure the beach is restored by natural processes within a couple of days.”


Mr Niblock says some maintenance of the vehicle access point is also likely to be needed to enable safe access for oil spill response vehicles.


“This is likely to be carried out on the day prior to the exercise itself and again any required restorative work will be done following the exercise.”