Marine chemical spill response exercise

NSW Maritime is staging Exercise Stingray today to test the NSW marine incident response capability to events such as shipping accidents in our ports and coastal waters.

Maritime’s Manager Shipping and Pollution Response, Shayne Wilde, said this type of annual exercise is used to test various aspects of state and national protocols for responding to pollution incidents.

“Exercise Stingray will focus on a bulk chemical spillage of anhydrous ammonia from a ship in the Port of Newcastle,” Wilde said.

Exercise Stingray will be a desktop exercise to test the NSW State Waters Marine Oil and Chemical Spill Contingency Plan and the control and coordination arrangements for agencies responding to a significant chemical spill from a ship.

Participants will examine the control and coordination requirements for this type of incident and develop an appropriate incident action plan.

Along with NSW Maritime, agencies/organisations involved are:

• Newcastle Port Corporation
• NSW Fire Brigades
• NSW Police Service
• NSW Ambulance Service
• Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water
• Industry & Investment NSW
• Emergency Management NSW
• Sydney Ports Corporation
• Port Kembla Port Corporation
• Newcastle City Council
• Orica
• Port Waratah Coal Services

The exercise is based on a spillage of anhydrous ammonia which will impact the port waters and also the land in the vicinity of the incident. It is a desktop exercise being held today at NSW Maritime offices, 207 Kent Street, Sydney.

It follows Exercise Blackadder, held in August, that tested NSW Maritime’s internal response to an oil spill off Montague Island on the NSW South Coast and the previous annual exercise, Exercise Oily Carp, which was a discussion exercise and examined a response to a major ship grounding and subsequent oil spill off Coffs Harbour.