On Wednesday at 6:30 a.m., a ship loading at Pacific Coast Terminals in Port Moody experienced a hose failure, spilling an estimated 120 tonnes of canola oil into Burrard Inlet.
Not to worry, it was only a test, designed to demonstrate Western Canada Marine Response Corporation's (WCMRC) response and its adherence to Transport Canada regulations.
"The certification exercise is a requirement by Transport Canada," said WCMRC spokesperson Michael Lowry. The organization tests its equipment deployment in response to a 150-tonne spill annually (equipment deployments for a 2,500-tonne spill are done every two years).
In the case of such a spill, the responsible party - in this case, PCT - initiates its own immediate response, including containing the source of the spill and deploying preliminary booming. WCMRC is notified and activates its containment, recovery and storage resources within the harbour.
Transport Canada sets out response times and how much oil has to be cleaned up and how quickly.
"Response times vary depending on the location and size of the spill," Lowry said. "The Shipping Act gives six hours for within the port... but in the past 10 years, our average response time in the Lower Mainland has been about an hour."
Regardless of the size of the spill, all the product has to be off the water within 10 days and beaches must be cleaned up at a rate of at least 500 m per day.
Lowry said WCMRC dispatched seven vessels to respond to PCT's "spill" on Wednesday - the Burrard Cleaner No. 7 and Workboat No. 15 (both for boom deployment and support), and the Burrard Cleaner No. 3 and No. 30, Workboat No. 25 and MJ Green, all for skimming/recovery, as well as Workboat No. 24 in a safety role. Trailers are also dispatched for communications and equipment and for decontamination.
"Once all the oil is contained, both around where the spill was and any spill areas along the shore are boomed off as well, then we put skimmers in the water to skim the oil off," Lowry said of the clean-up process.
A Coast Guard vessel was also in Burrard Inlet to monitor the clean-up; in the case of a real spill, the Coast Guard would also step in to manage the response if it found the responsible party was not handling things correctly, Lowry said.
PCT staff were also monitoring the exercise from shore, said spokesperson Diana Dilworth.
"PCT on an annual basis does simulation exercises and we vary the scenario, whether it's a bulk product, a liquid product, an issue with the train, an issue with the vessel or a security issue," she said. "This is a wonderful opportunity to work with one of our responding partners to look at proactively how we would deal with a spill."
PCT is expanding to handle 1.8 million tonnes of potash annually by the end of 2016 and will soon be handling up to 750,000 tonnes of canola oil annually.
