The EU geographical plan of the Environmental Action Centers "EAC´s" to fight oil and chemical disasters! My version 2006.

This picture and map gives a general idea of where the oil prevention action centers should be. With this geographical distribution of equipment and knowledge we can really limit the oil and/or chemical disasters very effectively. We must get better prepared, this is one possibility, if we want to do something about this issue which should be important for all of us, and the living environment.

I wonder how much these EU and other countries spend each year on military equipment that is stored away and just getting rusty and unusable, not used I hope, in a dark warehouse somewhere far away? What about using some of this money to do this work? Why not? It is the politicians that should take the decisions and they are responsible for all of this! Both the military rearmament ( wasting huge amounts of tax money ) and the environmental protection business where they use almost no money at all!

In the European Union there could be 50-75 centers if we include Norway and the Black Sea countries, Cyprus, Israel, Turkey, Syria and the North African Mediterranian countries. But they should not be further apart as you can find on the map!

With this EAC center distribution we can seal off harbours, parts of seas and waterways., and that saves money!

The price tag is not small, as these centers are estimated to be about 15 million Euros each and the whole price tag would be about 1000 million Euros. This should be paid by the European Union as all countries must participate in this prevention and possible clean-up operation. This will be less money than any large oil spill to handle and cleanup when you are not prepared at all!
If we would start with the construction of about 10 centers per year it would still take some 8-10 years before we have it all done. You must also realize that there are more other kind of chemicals transported on the seas than petrochemical crude! The accidents will come no doubt. Lets do something!

En Europa kartta från Google earth map och ritade in en tänkt täthet över center med tillräcklig utrustning samt skolnings möjligheter i hela Europa, inkluderande den norra Afrikas kust, Israel, Cypern, Turkiet samt Syrien och Svarta Havet.
Det skulle bli 50-75 nya center för skolning och material. Á priset cirka 15 miljoner Euro. Totala kostnader för beredskapen vore alltså cirka 1 mrd €uro. för hela Europa på nämda område.
Priset skall ju sättas i relation till vad tex Prestige olyckan kostade i rening, det var inte lite det.
Vem vet, kanske någon inser att det inte ändå vore så illa med en sådan organisation och täthet på dessa center. Man bör även komma ihåg att det transporteras mera övriga kemikalier på haven än råolja!

Should we do something?

Is this what we are waiting for? It will come, no doubt about it!

Due to old and bad construction the Prestige ship starts to brake-up in a storm in 2004 in the big waves in the Atlantic ocean...














Prestige leaves a deadly oily stream after it before the final disaster hits...













Final disaster, ship breaks up into two halves....













Oil has reached the beaches, tons and tons of oil, heavy, difficult to handle, poisonous and deadly...


















Is this scenario what we have to face as we are not prepared?
Why not get prepared, it will be much more "economically feasible" and far more intelligent to be prepared even for years in advance, than not to have anything to work with as the disaster hits. Since there is no doubt it will come.
In the Prestige case, lots and lots of equipment was sent from all over Europe to Spain to collect the oil but the main problem was that there was not enough skilled and trained people to use the equipment. Not very clever in the year 2004. Have we learnt anything from this case now in the year 2006? Have we? I doubt it...

Should we start doing something?

How to act as a proper manager/official, what is important?

In this page I am sorry but you have to know Swedish and/or Norwegian to understand this way of doing problem solving of difficult matters, but as the consult says:
"If you as a manager or official get into a problematic corner ( which you have caused yourself, most of the times anyway ) , never forget to put the blame on somebody else, and you better figure that out in advance"! Never, ever, let anybody put the blame on you! Have your flight plan ready!

GOTO: the consult is never wrong, he might even teach you some new and useful ideas!

Here is some help in the Norwegian language: Norsk er ikke så enkelt, særlig ikke på farse- komedie- nivå.
"Tuklet" er imperfektum av verbet "å tukle" som betyr å gjøre noe ufornuftig med noe uten mål og mening. "Fikle" er et verb med omtrent samme mening, men mer fysisk; at man gjør noe med hendene uten mål og mening for eksempel "fikle med en knute" (uten å få den opp). "Fikle" med knappene i blusen eller andre knapper og spenner er jo ganske vanlig. Det går også an å "tukle" med knapper og slikt, men mer vanlig å "tukle" med kvinnfolk eller andre kompliserte saker.

"Søpla" er "soporna" på svenska og hører jo til vårt fagfelt selv om de fleste kolleger sier: "Søppel og septik er noe dritt !"

Hope you got it!

Have a nice day!

Should we do something?

Öljyntorjuntatilanne Suomessa 24 helmikuuta 2006, with English summary:

Suomenlahden tulevan suuren öljykatastrofin edeltäviä ajatuksia, tilanne Suomessa:

SYKE ( Suomen Ympäristökeskus ) rakentaa suuria laivoja, jäänmurtaja tyyppisiä, jotka avomerellä voisivat kerätä öljyä talteen, niin ainakain joku suunnittelee. Niitä ei vielä ole.
Huom: Suomenlahti on syvä Eestin puolella ja matala ja saaristoinen Suomen puolella, katsottu koulun maantiedon kartasta...
Meripuomia on kun kaikki puomit Suomen rannikolta kerätään talteen noin 15 kilometriä.
Se ei riitä niinkun mihinkään avomerellä, jos puhutaan keskikokoisesta tai suuresta öljytankkerista ja totaali katastrofista, niin paikan päällä tulee olla vähintään 50-100 kilometriä meripuomia jotta alue saataisiin hallintaan. Ja siihen tulee olla sopivat alukset sen puomin levittämiseen, kumpaakaan ei ole.
Mutta miten kerätä pois öljy puomitetulta alueelta? Suomessa ei ole öljyn keräykseen tarkoitettuja pieniä tai keskisuuria aluksia varustuksineen ollenkaan, niitä on rakennettu mutta ne on myyty muille maille. Ei ole proomuja joissa säiliöitä joihin kerätä talteen otettu öljy jne.
Täällä ei myöskään ole riittävästi skimmereitä palolaitoksilla tai muilla toimijoilla.
Meiltä puuttuu myös osaavia ihmisiä johtamaan ja hoitamaan suuronnettomuuden toimintaa sen sattuessa koska koulutusta ei ole eikä asiaa jostain syystä haluta hoitaa nopealla aikataululla kuntoon. Kuka oikeastaan vastaa mistään?

Tässäkö se tilanne johon halutaan joutua kun ei ole mitään työkaluja öljyn talteenottoon? Kuva Tyyneltä Valtamereltä eräästä suuresta öljypäästöstä vuodelta 2005.

Vene alareunasta menossa öljyn keskelle.

Palolaitosten lukumäärää on vähennetty oltuaan yli 200 kpl, nyt alueellisia keskuksia on noin 20. Niille kuuluu tehdä alueelliset öljyntorjuntaan liittyvät suunnitelmat. Nämä suunnitelmat ovat todennäköisesti lakisääteisiä, mutta koska viime vuodet ovat palolaitoksilla menneet yhdentymisen järjestelyihin ja keskenäisiin kinasteluihin toisarvoisista asioista heillä ei ole ollut resursseja valmistaa öljyntorjuntasuunnitelmiaan.

Kun nämä keskeiset ja tärkeät suunnitelmat puuttuvat ei Suomen ÖljySuojaRahasto suostu tarvittavienkaan hankkeiden rahoitukseen, viittaamalla siihen että ei ole alueellista yleissuunnitelmaa. Eli kun ei ole tehty suunnitelmaa niin ei voi tehdä tai hankkia myöskään kriittisiä komponentteja kuten puomeja ja venekalustoa riittävästi paikallisesti mihinkään, jne.

Eli on taas kerran helpompaa olla tekemättä mitään päätöksiä ja hankintoja kuin tehdä niitä vaikka pikkuhiljaa ja vähitellen jotta valmius myös saaristossa ja rannikolla olisi olemassa. Kts blogin otsikko.

Kuka saa kenkää seuraavan suuremman öljypäästön jälkeen kun osoittautuu että sitä ei voida hoitaa ollenkaan kun ei ollut kuin lusikoita, riepuja ja suojapukuja? Todennäköisesti ei kukaan ja vähän surkutellaan, että miten siinä nyt näin taas kävi, ja tekemättömyyden nollalinja jatkuu…

Mutta SYKE voi rakentaa isoja laivoja…mihinköhän niitä tarvitaan oikeastaan? Matalassa rannikkovesistössä jossa 1-4 metriä vettä niitä ei sitten kuitenkaan voida käyttää. Että sillai.

English in brief:

The situation in Finland in February 2006 regarding equipment and readiness to act in the major oil disaster to come-

Here is a picture of a sea bird in Spain 2004
when the oil carrier Prestige broke into half.

Don´t we people owe our wildlife some help and return not to kill them inhumanly like this. We have the technology to do at least something, why don´t we do all we can?

In this blog page I just wonder what is possible to do in the Gulf of Finland if an accident of likely proportions would happen. If some 10000 tons or more of crude oil would be released from a ship in an accident, it would need more than 50 kilometers of readily availavble booms. If we collect all the booms we have in the whole country we dont have more than some 10-15 kilometers. These booms must also be readily available somewhere on the south coast of Finland where they are not presently. Even if we had 50 kilometers of booms and could stop the oil from spreading we dont have any boats to collect the oil, neither do we have barges with barrels to put the collected oil into. We don´t have enough scimmers or other equipment either.

Well, what do we have: the government agency SYKE is building large ships ( one ship ) to do the collecting of the oil out on the high seas. But these boats cannot come near the coast or islands because of the very shallow waters. And one big boat does do much good in a very large oil disaster because of the time factor for the spreadding of the oil. The Gulf of Finland is shallow on the northern coast, ie the Finnish coast, and deeper on the south coast, ie the Estonian coast.

So actually we dont have much equipment to use or put to work on a large oil spill, else than, boots, protective clothing , tooth brusches and some detergent, oh yes some white buckets to collect some of the oil in...with spades. Why?

Are we really in the year 2006? Have the authorities not realized that and the increasing transports of crude oil by sea? The oiltransports from the Russian oil harbours in the ports in the east of the Gulf of Finland are increasing every day. And we just sit like ducks waiting...

Should we do something?

Afraid to comment my BLOG? Not that difficult anyway!

I can see that there is an increasing traffic on my BLOG.

Please, I would very much like to have some comments on the text and pictures!

It is not that difficult to comment.

Have a nice day and some fun reading my BLOG.

Where will the next disaster be in the Gulf of Finland?

It is most likely that an oil disaster will occure here in this area, that is my opinion.
Most of the oil transport traffic is inside the pink square:
From Russia westwards and to and from Neste Oil Refinery in Porvoo.
Where is the most obvious location for the Environmental Action Center for Oil Recovery?
As far as the picture and traffic shows it is in the immediate vicinity of the Neste Porvoo Oil Refinery!
Press on the picture to enlarge it!

Should we do something?

Facts and figures of oil disasters, how it spreads:

Authorities have years ago calculated the following:

1. 1 metric ton crude oil in the water will in 100 minutes spread to a 0.1mm thick film and cover some 8000-10000 squere meters of water area. ( About 10% of the oil will evaporate increasing the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere! ).

2. 10000 metric tons will thus in 100 minutes hours cover hundreds of hectars of water area.

3. 50000 metric tons will be just a huge disaster.

The ships transporting crude oil from the bottom of the Finnish Gulf ( from 2 large Russian oil harbours ) out through the Öresund to the Atlantic are all large supertankers, about 50000- 100000 metric tons.

What is the present situation for preparedness in the whole south coast of Finland? How many kilomters of protective boom do we have? As far as I know there is not many kilometers at all.
The largest stock is actually kept by Neste refinery themselves ( 2.5 km about ) in Porvoo, the authorities do not have almost any booms in stock. How fast can these booms be placed out so that they will eventually help and prevent at least some of the oil reaching the shores?
Those of us who have been out on the high seas know that 2.5 km is not very long distance out there, in fact it is so short you would not believe it! So what then? The main part of the oil will land on south-west winds on the Finnish coast on northerly -north-easterly winds on the Estonian coast. Then the mess and huge problem is there.
This will cost a huge amount of money to clear up... and it will be a disaster for the animals and sealife in general.

Should we not be better prepared in order to have at least a small change to fight the mess?

There are laws on how many kilometers protective boom there should be in any community, specially in the communities by the Finnish Gulf and Botnian Sea, but no one is applying to the law! It is very frustrating!

Should we do something?

Mitä tulevaisuus tuo tullessaan? Odotusta, epävarmuutta ja tulevan öljykatastrofin aiheuttamien vahinkojen väheksymistä:

Saadaanko öljyonnettomuuksien torjuntakeskus materiaaleineen sinne missä meillä on öljysatama ja liikennettä? vai?

Tulevan öljyntorjuntakeskuksen taloudellisista toimintaedellytyksistä ja sijoituksesta:

sitaatti alkaa*""Merja Huhtala Ympäristöministeriöstä ilmoittanut 9.1.2006 15:22 sähköpostitse Itä-Uudenmaan liittoon:

Viite: Itä-Uudemaan liiton tiedustelu,

Ympäristöministeriö teettää yhdessä Sitran kanssa konsulttiselvityksen öljyntorjuntakeskuksen taloudellisista toimintaedellytyksistä. Selvityksen pitäisi valmistua helmikuun alkupolella, minkä jälkeen ministeri vie asian vuosien 2007- 2011 kehysbudjettia käsittelevään hallituksen talousriiheen. Vasta jos hanke osoittautuu taloudellisesti kestäväksi ja sille järjestyy rahoitus, ja hankkeelle siis ns. näytetään vihreää valoa, mietitään sellaisia asioita kuin esim. sijoituspaikka.

YM:n ja Sitran konsultit ovat Jaakko Pöyry Infra/ Maa ja Vesi Oy ja PriceWaterhouseCoopers. JP:llä työstä vastaa Lasse Parvinen ja PWC:llä Christoffer Wasastjerna.

Ystävällisin terveisin
Merja Huhtala
ylitarkastaja
Ympäristöministeriö""* sitaatti loppu.

English in brief:
First they in the government will see if it economically feasible and if it can be financed? ( what does this mean? of course there is money and finances to do this most necessary preparedness project, money and funds are collected into the "oil protection fund" all the time! ) then the project will get green light, meaning it will be done at all, and then finally it will be decided where it will be placed!?
Somewhere far off from the largest oil refinery in the Baltic Sea region ( Porvoo ) and main petrochemical shipping routes I presume? Who will decide on these matters?
This means that there will be nothing done to prepare us for the most likely oil disaster to come, in the coming 3-5 years according to standard government procedure and planning!
And if someone seeking can find the money under the carpet, for sure? And who will pay to keep it running?

There has never ever been nor will there ever be any environmental projects, prevention or cleaning up afterwards, that is or could be "economically feasible", this is pure rubbish to even state this kind of things when we are dealing with environmental projects.

That a governement official gives out this kind of information and statements shows just how far from the reality of the everyday problems the governement actually is! Why are we paying salaries to these kind of incompetent officials?

So far it has always been the tax payer who has paid the bill to clean it up, everywhere!
The whole idea of feasibility and economics in environmental protection is absurd and does not help anybody. We just have to realize that these things are expensive and the money just has to be placed to do this kind of work, that´s it!


A person high ranking in the governmental agency for environmental affairs, like this inspector is likely to be, should never express these issues like this! This is just not professional!

It seems once again to be more "safe" just to put the problem into a "committee" for years to be investigated on with various "paid consults" who has been given a "predetermined task" to come up with a "predeterminated answer", or?

Could I be wrong?


Should we do something?

What is going on? Where will the main oildisaster fighting center be in the south of Finland?

There is some information coming out of the various government offices in Helsinki ( not official and not specific information ) that the main oilspill teaching and equipment storage center will be in Helsinki in Santahamina area! Is this the case? Why?
The big issue is of course that the one and only oil harbour and refinery on the south coast of Finland is in Porvoo-Sköldvik area east of Helsinki and all the main oil disasters sofar has happened outside the Porvoo-Sköldvik refinery and oil harbour!

It does not seem to be a very intelligent decision to place this large oil prepardness center somewhere, there no oil disasters are likely to happen nor has ever happened!?
Who is making all these extremely strange decicions?

Why is Tolkis deep harbour in Porvoo being sidestepped in this contest? There is a lot of work presently done to clear the area for this use, and the construction of the buildings for the center could be started very soon.

Should we do something...

There is a "funny" new law being applied in Finland!

This article on the local newspaper Uusimaa states that the number of oil spills detected in 2005 has increased by some 30%. This is just the number of confirmed sightings which are 48 in 2005.
One has to remeber that most likely there are at least as many not detected oil spills or even many more...
It is also said in this article that the Finnish government will start to apply a law from 1st April 2006, making it a fee for oilspills varying between about 4000-40000 €uros depending on how large the spill is! In the article they say that the spills seen in 2005 have been about 29 metric tons.

Instead of making as I would suggest a compulsory oil cleaning fee in the harbours which would make it necessary and compulsory to clean your tanks in the harbour, and then a massive penalty if you do it in the said waters! The penalty must be large enough to scare off these offenders!

Now one has to ask the following: How will the costs for the material and labour on the achieved oil spill be covered? Will 40000 €uros be enough as we know that it costs about 17-25 €uros/kg of heavy oil to be removed from the waters and the beaches? In my calculus this means that with 40000 €uros you can cover only 1600 kg of oil ie 1.6 metric tons. Not very much? Will the rest of these costs once again be covered by the tax payers money? I say hold your horses! This is getting once again all too easy! No way, the one who does the dirty work has to pay for the cleanup in FULL!

Should we do something?

What about co-operation? What about national TV? What about exchange of information? etc...

If the information on these disasters between neighbouring countries is of this kind, ( in this article in Swedish language Latvia is accusing Estonia not to have informed them about the disaster, three weeks after it happened, and the oil slick is moving down south into the Latvian waters ) no wonder that the HELCOM, ( The Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation between Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden ) is not doing anything but having meetings and meetings... doing nothing practical, means nothing is done wrong! Or?

Will there be something done before the great oil disaster and hundreds of tons of crude or heavy oil in the Gulf of Finland or/and the Baltic Sea? This disaster is more likely to happen than not to happen, even the experts agree on this!

When will the preparation start to build the centers for oil disaster recovery and prevention?
These centers must be many and not too far apart, with enough material and well trained people to use the material and work with these issues. This is neither a cheap nor an easy task to do!

When will people really take these issues seriously and start to educate people how to fight this mess?
With tooth brushes and soap, cleaning stones on the beaches is not the modern way to do this kind of work... there is much more to it! The TV pictures today and lately from Estonia are pathetic only, no more.

Should we do something?

Who should do something? nr. 5, here it is...

Environmental Crimes To Do List for the EU Commission and Parliament:

1. There must be no accidental washouts or spillages of oil,fuel or other pollutants from ships anywhere, ever.
2. These environmental crimes always hit the unprotected. Animals and other wildlife cannot do anything to protect or clean themselves.
3. The act of deliberately flushing ships' oil and fuel tanks or bilges should be classified as an extreme crime against the environment and wildlife, and should be punished most severely each time.
4. The captain responsible for these environmental crimes should be guilty at law and be liable to a prison sentence of 3-5 years, cause: "extreme cruelty to animals".
   
5. Ship owners should be required to pay a minimum fine of 1 million €uro for each of these crimes ( or more?).
6. Ship owners should pay all costs involved in cleaning up the environment at such crime scenes. ( The estimated cost of such a clean-up is about 17-25 €uro/kg oil ).
7. The EU Commission and Parliament must be lobbied to make the necessary changes in EU laws and regulations and also to establish a working surveillance system, to replace the current almost non-existent surveillance of the environment.
8. The future scenario must be that these crimes will be punishable by both economic penalties and incarceration so that the fear factor alone will provide an incentive to put an end to these environmental crimes.

If there is any other way please let me know.…

Should we do something? Could this be the start?

Who should do something? nr. 4

There was some facts on national Finnish TV today, 13th of February 2006, about the process of cleaning birds and other oily animals, with ABsorbent by Mr. Jorma Jungell, in the Animal Cleaning Hospital of his design.
WWF representative stated that mr Jorma Jungel´s ABsorbent works fine and would have saved hundreds of birds in Estonia, as it did in 1989 in Alaska in the great Exxon Valdez disaster.

The last I have heard this year sofar from the national Oil Safety Board, that they had once more asked the National Enironmental Central of Finland if this kind of animal cleaning unit is really necessary?

So they do.... and the readiness for the next oil disaster seems to be no better than it has ever been.

goto: http://www.joresin.com to see what can be done!

Should we do something?

Who should do something? nr. 3

MTV3 news: 06.02.2006 18:44

Jo tuhansia lintuja kuollut öljyyn Virossa:

Viron luoteisrannikolta on löydetty tähän mennessä lähes 3000 öljyyn kuollutta lintua, kertoivat pelastustyöntekijät. Öljyn tahrimia elossa olevia lintuja on löydetty 750.

Paikallisen luonnonsuojelukeskuksen johtaja Kaja Lotman kertoo, että tavoitteena on löytää vielä elossa olevia lintuja ja siirtää ne sisätiloihin. Tallinnalaiseen kylpylään on kuljetettu sata lintua. Pelastustöitä tehdään 35 kilometrin pituisella rantakaistalla Harjun ja Laanen maakunnissa.

Töihin osallistui viikonloppuna yli 140 ihmistä. Jää ja pakkanen vaikeuttavat pelastustöitä. Öljyä on myös jään alla. Kuolleiden lintujen joukossa on joutsenia ja muuttolintuja. Merikotkille on viety kalaa rannan tuntumaan, jotta ne eivät ryhtyisi syömään öljyisiä lintuja.

Viron ympäristöviranomaiset arvelevat, että jostakin laivasta runsas viikko sitten päässyt tai päästetty öljy on surmannut noin 10 000 lintua. Viron ornitologisen seuran jäsen Vilju Lilleleht puolestaan arvioi, että jopa 35 000 lintua on saattanut kuolla.

English in brief: There are thousends of dead birds found in the water and shores in Estonia. People are trying to clean the oily birds with water and detergents, which procedure in this arctic cold conditions will kill most of the birds, since they cannot live and survive without their bodyfat, and so the help and effect is poor. Sea eagles are also a problem because they try to eat the oily birds and die themselves. Up to 35000 birds might have died.

Should we do something?

Who should do something? nr. 2

English in brief: The governments and official authorities do not put up enough money and means to do an "Environmental Prepardness Situation" that should be done due to ever incresing oil and petrochemical transports in the Gulf of Finland. if we are not prepared well in advance we will never be able to anything substantial about these things.

Should we do something?

Who should do something? nr. 1

Oil spill in early February 2006 on north coast of Estonia.

10000-35000 birds have died, only few have survived!

Reason:
Nobody in any administration seems to have the guts to say - enough - we have to be better prepared, now!

We have to get the right kind of cleaning methods and units to be able to save what there is to save. When it is minus 10-20-30 centigrade out there, you simply cannot wash and clean the oily birds with Fairy or other liquid detergents - that will kill them for sure!
The only possibility to do the job is to use the Animal Cleaning Hospital unit to do the job! There just is no other method that has been proven to work in any conditions out there!
Wake up... think about it... lets start working on a better environmental first aid program... also for the animals!

Should we do something?