Fenland District Council's marine team undertake counter-pollution exercise in River Nene at Wisbech

A training exercise designed to test the response in the event of an oil spill was held in the River Nene in Wisbech this week.

On Tuesday (13), the Marine Services Team from Fenland District Council's Port of Wisbech Harbour Authority conducted a Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) marine oil pollution exercise to test their Oil Spill Contingency Plan.

The MCA regularly carries out training exercises across the UK in preparedness against potential pollution threats to the UK coastline, including inadvertent oil and chemical discharges as well as plastic and natural products.

The purpose of a port's contingency plan for marine pollution is to ensure that there is a timely, measured, and effective response to incidents.

The training exercise at Wisbech Port was assessed by an MCA Counter Pollution and Salvage officer and involved all of the Marine Services and Wisbech Harbour Office teams, and their Tier 2 responder 'Ambipar Response Ltd', as well as staff from Port of Wisbech Ltd and Drake Towage.

In the planned rehearsal, the Tug (boat) was carrying out refuelling (known as bunkering) when its fuel hose 'split' and theoretically spilled 3,000 litres of oil into the River Nene.

Among the kit deployed were booms to limit the spread of pollutant, equipment known as skimmers to collect it, and a huge storage bag to hold it ready for disposal. No real oil was used in the exercise.

The assessor looked at all aspects of the incident, from stopping the pollutant spreading and readiness of equipment and response teams, to environmental issues and health and safety, through to cleaning up of the pollutant.

They were very impressed with the port's contingency plan and team working during the exercise.