Other support services who provided invaluable assistance in the operations were British Red Cross (36 trained first aiders at 14 locations amounting to over 2,000 hours), St Johns Ambulance (9 trained first aiders at 8 locations amounting to over 800 hours), Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) (50 trained Inspectors supported by approximately 200 volunteers amounting to 4,200 hours, covering from the Gower to St Davids Head), Salvation Army (8 members involved at 8 locations amounting to over 750 hours), and the Womens Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) (79 members giving 3,400 hours and serving nearly 8,000 meals). We had many offers of help from volunteers, and these were directed to voluntary agencies such as the RSPCA, as they could not be safely used on beach cleanup operations.
Cleaning a beach is rarely straight-forward. Practical issues must be addressed such as the amenity status of the beach, the access to the beach for large items of equipment and the ability to support heavy machinery if required. The environmental impact of cleaning must be assessed with regard to the marine communities in the inter-tidal zone, marine vegetation, sea birds, fish and mammals. In some cases, the strategies recommended by representatives of the different ecological communities conflicted and the environment team had to devise an acceptable compromise.
The immediate task of the cleanup operation was to act quickly to remove as much bulk oil as possible. Final polishing would be left until there was no oil remaining at sea and no evidence of significant refloatation of oil from polluted beaches. Beach cleanup operations from the 24-29 February removed the majority of the bulk oil from accessible sites.
The JRC mounted a major operation that involved at its peak over 900 men on shoreline recovery of oil. These manual resources were supplied by a combination of Local Authority employees (Direct Labour Organisation), Local Contractors, MPCU Contractors, Texaco, OSRL, and NRA.
Beach cleaning equipment was supplied through Standing Conference / Texaco stock, OSRL stock, MPCU stock, NRA stock, Local Authority stock, and local Civil Plant Hire. Also, the Farmers Machinery Ring provided an essential source of agricultural vacuum tankers, without which we could not have achieved the shoreline oil recovery in the Tenby and Saundersfoot Area. During one period of 36 hours, over 3,000 t of liquid was removed from the beaches.
Disposal of oily waste is always a major problem. The SEA EMPRESS incident generated over 20,000 t of liquid waste and over 12,000 t of solid.
Liquid waste recovered at sea was taken by sea to Milford Haven and transferred to the Texaco refinery. Liquid waste recovered from the beaches was transported by road tanker to Texaco, and Gulf refinery. In total, the refineries handled over 22,000 t of liquid waste (95% through Texaco). Rate of liquid recovery would have been significantly inhibited without refinery sites adjacent to the incident.
The solid beach material posed a more difficult problem, not least because in total over 12,000 t have been recovered, consisting of oiled sand, several hundred m3 sorbent booms, plastic bags, oiled personal protection equipment and large quantities of oiled seaweed.
Of this, over 4,000 t have been sent to a landfill site at Merthyr Tydfil about 100 miles away. 120 t were stabilised in asphalt. Over 7,000 t of oiled sand were taken to Texaco for landfarming. This process involves spreading the waste over a controlled land site and allowing bacterial action to convert it into less harmful components.
Temporary storage sites were set up at Preseli Pembrokeshire District Council (PPDC)'s Thornton yard and at the Texaco refinery so that solid waste destined for landfill sites could be consolidated before being transported.
Had this accident occurred away from Milford Haven, and its refineries, a very different picture could have emerged. Large quantities of oily wastes would have been looking for a distant disposal route, at potentially high environmental and financial costs. Next time, the UK may not be as fortunate, unless robust waste disposal plans are in place to cover all likely scenarios.
Once the bulk oil was removed, attention could be given to the method and amount of secondary cleaning required. Priority was given to the main amenity beaches which by early April were sufficiently free of bulk oil to be available for the Easter Holidays.
