Media Statement Tuesday 27 January 2004
EDS asks Secretary for the Environment to investigate oil tanker threat
The Environmental Defence Society has called for an urgent review of the rules governing oil tanker visits to New
Zealand. This follows the release today of the report into the grounding of the Capella Voyager off Marsden Point last
year. The Capella Voyager hit the bottom and ruptured its hull. Later in the year the Eastern Honor was involved in a
similar incident, also at Marsden Point.
"Two groundings in one year is real a wake-up call. Oil tankers pose huge risks of massive oil spills and consequent
devastation of our coastal marine environment," said EDS Chairman Gary Taylor.
"The Capella Voyager was a double-hulled tanker with 107,800 tonnes of light crude oil on board. It breached its hull
and if it had been single hulled, there could have been a massive pollution incident devastating hundreds of miles of
coastline. It could have been the worst pollution incident in our history - New Zealand's equivalent of Exxon Valdez.
"A rupture of one of these single-hulled tankers would overwhelm all available containment and dispersal technologies.
Pollution would enter the Whangarei Harbour and devastate the coastline from Tutukaka to the Hen and Chickens Marine
Reserve and well down Bream Bay towards the popular mid-North beaches. Wildlife would be severely impacted. There would
be a huge clean-up challenge.
"Under current international conventions, single-hulled tankers are still allowed to berth at Marsden Point. Most of
these vessels were built in the 1970s and 1980s and are either in the process of being banned or are being phased out in
other countries. Some countries are looking at faster phase-out than others. Those vessels do not provide the level of
security required in the 21st century.
"So EDS is asking the Secretary for the Environment, Barry Carbon, to urgently investigate whether single-hulled oil
tankers should continue to be allowed to visit to New Zealand.
"A large-scale oil pollution incident is probably the worst event for our environment that one can think of. The
Ministry for Environment should evaluate the risks and consequences.
"The Maritime Safety Authority Report is a competent and thorough examination of the detailed causes of the grounding.
We welcome the procedural improvements suggested in it.
"But we need to go further. The report does not address the adequacy of the overall domestic legislative and regulatory
framework. That needs urgent review and we hope that Mr Carbon will give it immediate attention," Mr Taylor concluded.
http://www.eds.org.nz