Spills and accidents

Spills and accidents

Spills

Responsibility for spills from shipping and offshore installations is reserved by the UK Government, meaning that in both Scotland and England the competent responding authority is the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) when spills threaten the UK or surrounding waters.

Roles of other organisations, such as Scotland specific organisations, are outlined in the UK National Contingency Plan (NCP) for marine pollution from shipping and offshore installations. This plan also recognises the importance of assessing the impacts of marine spills on internal waters (often bays and inlets are classed as internal waters for the purposes of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea baselines) and the need for cross-border co-operation; “[i]t is for each devolved administration to review and assess the threat to their internal waters and shoreline, to formulate the best method of response and to communicate with other administrations. There may be a requirement for mutual aid or co-operation” (Maritime and Coastguard Agency, 2017).

The Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea (ACOPS) is an environmental non-governmental organisation which conducts annual surveys of reported discharges attributed to vessels and offshore oil and gas installations operating in the UK pollution control zone on behalf of the MCA. The most recent data available from the ACOPS annual surveys is from 2017.

If there is an emergency at sea which threatens to cause, or actually causes, pollution to the UK, or UK waters, action must be taken by the MCA, which has a statutory responsibility to do so. In combination with historical information, the annual survey allows the MCA Counter Pollution and Response team to assess trends in the spills which have occurred. The MCA also holds Counter Pollution Stockpiles with counter pollution equipment, dispersant, aircrafts, and an emergency towing vessel strategically located around the UK. Locations and details can be explored here, however there are no UK marine counter pollution resources located within the Solway Firth.

More information on marine pollution incident response is available here.

Details of spills within the Solway Firth over the most recent 6 years of available reports (2012-2017) are available in the table below. Note there were no spills in the Solway in 2013.

Table Data Source; Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea, 2013- 2017

Form the table above it is clear that in the Solway spills are almost exclusively diesel oil, while there were also single incidents of hydraulic, lubrication and vegetable oils between 2013 and 2017. The clean-up or dispersal of oil spills is important for the environment and also for marine operations, with spills potentially hindering other port or harbour operations. Wave action in UK seas often makes oil recovery difficult, however it can help quickly disperse the oil naturally. Fast dispersal is important in the Solway, as some estuarine features are sensitive to oil, such as salt meadows and saltmarsh (Natural England and NatureScot, 2010).

There have been no recent chemical spills in the Solway, and the likelihood of chemical spills is significantly reduced by several factors. The Solway has no oil or gas extractive activities, and is an estuary which has no large industrialised ports. Furthermore, as there is no thoroughfare for vessels, there is no rationale for vessels with chemical stocks to travel through the Firth. These aspects significantly reduce the likelihood of a chemical spill, although the Firth could still be impacted by a chemical spill beyond its limits. Exploring the ACOPS annual surveys illustrates the relatively limited spills which occur in the Solway (which forms part of the ‘Western Scotland’ and ‘Irish Sea’ areas) comparative to the UK continental shelf oil and gas installation spills. In 2017 the Irish Sea area had a total of 13 spills, the Western Scotland area experienced a total of 11 spills, whereas there were 295 oil releases from open sea UK oil and gas installations, and 201 chemical substance releases. Spills are inevitable while vessels travel across the marine area of the UK through accident, damage, or malfunctions.

Spills have the potential to contaminate water and harm species such as birds, however clean-up operations also have the potential to cause environmental harm. Dispersants are the main response method to oil spills in the UK, but can only be used subject to approval from a regulatory and licensing authority. In English waters the regulatory authority is the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). In Scottish waters Marine Scotland is the regulator responsible for approving dispersant use, except for operations related to offshore oil and gas, where oil spill dispersants are regulated by the Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy. The use of other oil spill treatment products is also subject to approval, although equipment such as skimmers, booms, and sorbent mats may be used without approval.  Shallow water requests are considered on a case-by-case basis with advice from nature conservation, fisheries, and other agencies. More information on oil spills and dispersant use can be found in the UK National Contingency Plan (NCP). The MMOs Marine Pollution Contingency Plan is available here providing information regarding the MMOs role in spill incidents, and how to request to use oil spill treatment products in English waters. It also provides a useful flow chart to illustrate the request process for dispersant use in English waters. This plan also outlines that the Port of Workington has a standing approval (since 2019) from the MMO for the use of approved oil spill treatment products, subject to certain restrictions. There are currently no areas of standing approval for dispersant use in the Scottish Solway.

Oil Spill Contingency Plans for Ports and Harbours

Harbours and ports also have responsibility for spills when they take place within their jurisdiction. UK obligations under the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation 1990 are implemented through the Merchant Shipping (Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation Convention) Regulations 1998 (as amended). Under these regulations certain UK harbours, ports, applicable operators of oil facilities are required to prepare an oil spill contingency plan and submit it to the MCA for approval (alternative plans are required for offshore installations). The MCA has guidance available in the form of ‘Contingency planning for marine pollution preparedness and response: guidelines for ports’. This document also, helpfully, outlines the responsibility for clean-up depending on the location of pollution. The responsibility for ensuring clean-up falls on Harbour Authorities, local authorities, owners, and the MCA depending on the location of pollution.
Oil Contingency Plans are often not available online. For example, the Port of Workington webpage on environmental policy outlines that an approved Oil Pollution Contingency Plan is in place, however does not provide a link to the plan.

Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners have a section of the website dedicated to their Oil Spill Contingency Plan, however the link is currently unavailable (March 2021).

Emergency Response Procedures for Dumfries and Galloway Council Harbours are provided in the Dumfries and Galloway Council Harbours Safety Management Guidance, available here. The document signposts the principal emergency procedures of the; Dumfries and Galloway Coastal Oil Pollution Contingency Plan; Individual Oil Spill Contingency Plans for Dumfries & Galloway Council Harbours; and the NCP. Furthermore, there was a Marine Emergency Plan published in 2017, copies of which are held in Kirkcudbright and Stranraer Harbour offices. Marine Scotland has collaborated with NatureScot to create useful spatial data layers which can be displayed in the National Marine Plan Interactive to help with oil spill contingency planning in Scotland, available here.

Future Trends

Spills in the Solway vary from year-to-year both in terms of number of spills and volume spilled. For example in 2013 there were no known spills within the Firth, whereas the following year (2014) there was over 1,600 litres of oil spilled within the Solway (this figure does not count the 20^th March spill from the Ro-Ro ferry travelling from Cairnryan to Larne as the oil was believed to have discharged over the North Channel, and it is unknown if, and how much spilled in Loch Ryan).

In the near future it is likely that the Solway will continue to have a relatively limited number of overall spills per year, with yearly variations. There are currently no significant expansion plans in the Firth for operations which would increase the risk of spills. If new activities, or the expansion of some existing socio-economic activities occur in the future, for example through new wind farms, increased ferry crossings, cruises, increased vessel traffic, then spills become more likely. There has been no oil and gas activity in the Solway since 1995/96 when two wells were explored for potential reserves, however both wells were dry. There are large scale restrictions on the Firth (military and environmental) limiting the potential for oil and gas activity within the area. The plans for the Woodhouse Colliery sub-sea coking coal mine (see Energy, aggregates, subsea cables and pipelines) and the similar geology found in the Solway and in Morecambe bay indicate hydrocarbon potential in the Firth.