Environmental protection-related government bodies conducted a drill yesterday morning to practice helping each other in the event Taipei Harbor is polluted by oil leaked from a ship.
"We need more practice at this," said Chang Juu-en (
"We have enough manpower, enough equipment, but communications between different units has been poor in the past. We do not have enough experience for an accident like this. If a ship does leak oil along our shoreline, it will definitely be a disaster."
The EPA scenario simulated a 30,000-tonne ship planning to return to Taipei Harbor when the captain realizes there is a malfunction aboard the ship.
The vessel ran aground on its way back to the port and the accident also cracked the side of the ship. Approximately 200 tonnes of oil leaked from the cracked ship and kept leaking at the speed of five to 10 tonnes an hour.
Since the location of the accident was close to the port, rescue crews from the Coast Guard Administration and Keelung Harbor Bureau Taipei Harbor Branch arrived at the scene in minutes.
They used cables to trap the leaking oil within a limited area and then began to suck it up with pumps. In addition, the Taiwan National Police Administration's Airborne Police joined the rescue with a helicopter to update the size of the polluted area from the air.
"Prompt reaction and instant communications are what we need," said Chang. "We will keep training our rescue crews of different units so they can be more familiar with their job and work with each other more smoothly."
The Taipei Harbor is located in Pali township, Taipei County, and was recently designated as an international harbor in support of the overloaded Keelung Harbor.
It is invested in and run by private enterprises instead of the government.
Currently, three ports are finished and in use. Two of them are for gravel ships. The Formosa Petrochemical Oil Corp owns and runs the other one for shipping oil from its Mailiao oil storage complex in YunlinCounty.
The Harbor Bureau says that another seven ports will be finished before 2011.
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