When disaster strikes

By JANINE OGIER


When 13,000 litres of diesel spilled into the pristine waters of Milford Sound, Paul Reid was one of those who pulled on his gumboots and protective clothing to help to clean up the mess. It's a tough, dirty job - but a sense of contributing to the environment in an active way means he enjoys the challenge.

Reid has worked for Environment Southland as a compliance officer for eight years. Normally, that means dealing with resource consent compliance and public complaints about air and water pollution.

But when disaster strikes and New Zealand's clean and green waterways are in peril, his special training kicks in as part of the regional council's response team which protects our coast, rivers and lakes.

For the Milford clean-up, 48-year-old Reid loaded up a trailer with specialist equipment and headed north from Invercargill to the fjord marine reserve.

Among the gear he took were containment booms, which float on water; absorbent materials, which act like a huge spongepad to absorb oil; hydraulic skimmers, which float on the surface and suck up oil-laden water and pump it to shore, and large spray pumps primed with chemicals to disperse and break up fuel oil.

It was about 8pm when he arrived on site: "The light was shining, but there was no light at all in the water. It was quite dismaying to see the depth of diesel that was in there. There was no perception through the diesel," he said.

Reid and the rest of the team worked to 3am under banks of lights powered by generators.

"We were liberally covered in diesel and ended up sitting knee deep in used sorbents and diesel polluted water," he says. "Our protective clothing managed to keep out the vast majority of water and diesel but we stank of diesel and our overalls and wet-weather gear had to be replaced."

In total 40,000l of diesel/water mix was suctioned off and stored in portable tanks by the time Reid headed home two days later.

"It's hard work but I always feel good," Reid says.

Reid initially volunteered for the pollution emergency team at Environment Southland because his communications skills, developed at Telecom, were needed for the operations team.

He completed a two-day training course on the fundamentals of marine oil pollution response then he took part in a three-day course on marine oil spill field operations to learn how to use the equipment so he could be on the ground helping to clean up.

The courses are split between theory and practical and certificates need to be revalidated every four years.

Twice a year the regional councils hold training exercises for the emergency teams, similar to a civil defence exercise.

"Somebody was saying at Milford that we were tired but we were chuffed," said Reid. "You feel like you have really achieved something after working on something such as this."




HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED


A disaster the size of Alaska's infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill saw the world wring its hands in sympathy, and every sea-facing nation needs a strong environmental protection platform for spills large or small.

There's an opportunity to make a contribution to keeping New Zealand's waters pristine for a person with an engineering background who has an affinity for the sea.

The Marine Pollution Response Services division of the Maritime Safety Authority is looking for an equipment technician trainee for their National Oil Spill Service Centre in Auckland.

Much of your day will be spent preparing for emergencies by maintaining equipment, working on special projects associated with oil spill response, and eventually assisting with the training of response teams. You'll be an integral member of the national response team.

General manager John Lee-Richards says the position would suit an outdoors person who likes fishing, boating, diving or surfing.

Call (09) 834 3908 for more information.