Centres.
・ Provide and maintain 2 shoreline cleanup stockpiles for local authority use.
3.5 Research
・ Commissioning approx £1 million per year worth of research which will improve the UK's response capability.
3.6 Prosecutions and Compensation
・ Submitting evidence to the Treasury or Marine Safety Agency Solicitors for consideration of prosecuting those responsible for illegal discharges.
・ Preparing and making claims for compensation from those responsible for illegal discharges.
3.7 International responsibilities
・ Under the terms of the Bonn Agreement (UK, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and EEC) giving counter pollution assistance to other 'Bonn States' and reporting any pollution incident which may affect another member state.
・ Representing the UK at the plenary and technical working group meetings of the Bonn Agreement.
・ Maintaining and developing separate bilateral agreements, eg with France (MANCHEPLAN) and Norway (Norbrit Plan), and participating in exercises. Developing similar arrangements with the Republic of Ireland.
3.8 Training
・ Running courses in shoreline cleanup and management techniques.
・ Organising one national and 10 local oil pollution exercises per year and 2 chemical training events.
4.0 Broad approach to dealing with oil pollution
4.1 The quantity of oil spilled from a tanker or other ship casualty will depend on a number of variable factors -principally, the relative speed at the moment of collision or grounding, the angle of incidence of impact, strength of hull construction, and whether cargo or bunker tanks are protected by double bottoms or wing tanks. All incidents are different and, depending on the particular combination of these factors the spillage of oil may range from nil to the whole cargo.
4.2 All at-sea cleanup techniques have severe limitations and variables such as weather and oil type can signif-icantly affect the quantity of oil that can be dealt with at sea. The effectiveness of any at-sea counter pollution operations in response to a spillage depends on the distance from shore of the casualty, the type of oil, the wind and tide, and the time taken to deploy resources to the scene.
4.3 The most desirable at-sea cleanup option is to recover the oil from the surface of the sea. This prevents it from stranding on the shoreline, reduces the possibility of damage to biological and other resources in the sea and in the littoral zone and avoids the high cost of removing oily material from the shore. In practice, at-sea recovery is never fully effective.
4.4 Fluid oils spilt at sea spread rapidly to cover very large areas - 1 m3 can cover l0,000 ? at a typical 0.1 mm thickness. Evaporation causes a reduction in total volume depending on the type of oil, but this is accompanied by an increase in viscosity. With some oils water-in-oil emulsions may form which increase the viscosity still further and at the same time increase the volume of oily material fourfold. With other oils natural dispersion willreduce the amount of oil on the sea surface. The rate at which these various processes occur will depend on oil type and weather. The oil remaining on the surface will be driven by wind and tide. Water-in-oil emulsions and the associated increase in viscosity progressively renders the oil untreatable by dispersants and increasingly difficult to recover by mechanical means.
4.5 Whilst there is a wide range of oil recovery systems available, all suffer limitations in the sea conditions prevalent around the UK shoreline and may take days to deploy to the scene of an incident. Government policy therefore, is that the use of dispersants is the only at-sea cleanup system known to be effective in the turbulent seas that surround the UK. However, as explained in a statement made by Ministers in the House of Commons on 28 July 1977, the policy on the use of such dispersants is that generally, where an oil spill is not causing or threatening damage, it is preferable for it to be allowed to evaporate and degrade naturally. Dispersant action will be initiated only where it is likely to be effective and in the judgement of experts, there is a significant threat of
