Policies and operational response capacities for HNS marine pollution 2010
The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has published the 2010 Inventory of EU Member States Policies and Operational Response Capacities for HNS Marine Pollution.
The information presented in this report is based on the responses of the EU Member States about their own inventory and response capacities.
According to EMSA, reporting on the HNS response capabilities has proved to be rather difficult because the level of preparedness and availability of specialised resources varies significantly between the EU Member States.
The Agency has found that what might be considered as an important resource by one Member State might be “almost completely disregarded” by another state. Therefore, EMSA was unable to draw fully objective conclusions on the individual capacities.
The Agency suggests that the resources used in HNS incident cleanup operations vary widely due to the vast number of chemicals that could be encountered. Therefore, the competent authorities in the Member States might not store the relevant counter agents but may rather draw upon various specialised suppliers as the need arises.
Against this background EMSA makes the point that it is extremely difficult to “to know exactly what is available in advance, particularly in relation to private companies and the salvage industry.”
A copy of the report can be downloaded by clicking here.
Source: EMSA
