A team from Buller District Council, the West Coast Regional Council, Maritime New Zealand and Talley’s have come together to conduct an oil spill preparedness response exercise at Westport Harbour’s Floating Basin.
The full practical exercise simulated a physical hands-on response using equipment that would be utilised for a real-life oil spill, including land-sea booms, rapid response booms and oil skimming equipment.
The scenario was based on a hypothetical spill originating from a stormwater outfall, draining directly into the Floating Basin.
The West Coast Regional Council’s incident controller for the exercise says: “These exercises help us embed our processes and procedures for maritime oil spill responses and ensure that we’re sharp on both deploying our equipment and engaging with partner agencies, iwi and stakeholders to ensure the best possible outcomes should we have an actual event.”
The exercise was run in line with the principles of Maritime NZ’s Marine Oil Sill Readiness and Response Strategy, which aims to ensure New Zealand has an efficient, effective, resilient and fit-for-purpose marine oil spill response system.
