The big white boat which has been attached to Meelick Quay for the past four years is now sunk alongside the quay.

Local word is that a large oil slick extends from the vessel

If some one knows who owns the vessel please let then know

Dona;

Dona??

What is HAPPENING this list lately?? :-))

Seriously; Don't W.I./Local Authorities not have a responsibility to prevent/stop pollution of this sort

Regards

Pet

Quote:

donaboland1
Local word is that a large oil slick extends from the vessel

Do you know if WI and CoCo Galway are aware of this? If not has anybody called the fire brigade?

Tina
[www.wasserrausch.de]
When the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills.

Sorry for my last post. For a short moment I forgot that this happens in Ireland.
The CoCo Environmental Officer is of course out of office probably on a boating or stag party this weekend and the fire brigades in whole Ireland are voluntary without any oil booms and despite that, they have to rescue people after car accidents and shootings.

Tina
[www.wasserrausch.de]
When the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 22/01/2011 21:47 by Tina.

Got confirmation that WI and Galway Co Co are aware of the situation and
have the matter in hand.

Colin

Morning Tina

The call was made all is in hand

Donal

"Got confirmation that WI and Galway Co Co are aware of the situation and have the matter in hand."

That could be good news - but, do we know what it means? With a boat of that size, there could be a considerable amount of not just oil, but other toxins on board.

I'm not shooting from the hip to criticise the Authorities - they may be doing a fine job, but it would be great to know the outcome. I know of other sinkings recently where awful damage was done to wildlife on the Shannon. Again, not pointing the finger at the Authorities, the examples I saw were in and down river of private marinas, during atrocious weather. Maybe the responsibility for clean-up rests with the Marina Management and/or the Boat owners?? Again I don't know. Can anybody shed some light on the relevent procedures/regulations/responsibilities?

Bearing in mind the heartbreak/expense and trauma of finding their pride and joy on the river bed, boat owners don't need any extra stress. But this is what Insurance cover is there for. Many boats are not insured. How does this lie with Marina Managers, who could be badly exposed in the event of a public liability claim for pollution damage, or worse - serious injury caused by un-insured clients?

Regards

Peter

Every private inland marina I know of only provide moorings to folks on foot of evidence of adequate insurance cover. This vessel didn't sink in a marina anyway. Any pollution from a sunken leisure vessel is unwelcome but let's keep perspective, it's not a leak from the exxon Valdez. (ducking)

I'm sure the relevant authorities will deal with it satisfactorily.

OceanFroggie



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 23/01/2011 13:56 by OceanFroggie.

Mr Frog: I'm sure the relevant authorities will deal with it satisfactorily.

I had a look at the vessel this morning

It is on the bottom, but the decks are above water, streaming diesel, no one about as yet

but Iam sure you are correct Noel

Donal

Quote:

donaboland1
Mr Frog: I'm sure the relevant authorities will deal with it satisfactorily.
I had a look at the vessel this morning

It is on the bottom, but the decks are above water, streaming diesel, no one about as yet

but Iam sure you are correct Noel

Donal

In fairness Donal, you did say all was in hand.
Me, I am inclined to Tina's skepticism.

BTW how does a boat stay tied up on a quay for *four years*????

Is this a public quay?
Five day rule revoked?

John

Quote:

OceanFroggie
[u]Every private inland marina I know of only provide moorings to folks on foot of evidence of adequate insurance cover. This vessel didn't sink in a marina anyway. Any pollution from a sunken leisure vessel is unwelcome but let's keep perspective, it's not a leak from the exxon Valdez. (ducking)
I'm sure the relevant authorities will deal with it satisfactorily.

You know, when I was writing this, it occured to me that the Jeremy Clarksons would have a snipe or two I was going to get my revenge in first but opted for a mature approach, and entertain the benefit of the doubt - so much for that approach

Ocean, (Can I call you by your first name?), if you only saw the amount of white gunge and dead and dying birds that friends of mine had to dig off the banks of the Shannon (And that was just the accesible bank), after just one, much smaller boat went down, I'm sure even your stoney heart would have melted

Oil, and probably other yuckey chemicals, leaked from that boat for over a week. Who knows what further damage was done down stream? How many more eco disasters from the freeze up have never being reported ? It may not be oil tanker stuff, but a river is xxx times more vulnerable than the open sea. I'm not trying to dish out the blame, I'm only trying to establish what options there are to restrict colateral damage? If people have insurance, they should invoke its terms to include speedy anti pollution measures as part of the salvage.

As Tina's understandably sarcastic remark illustrates, we Irish have a VERY bad reputation for protecting the environment. (Though thank goodness, in many respects we have improved)

And I thought all frogs were "Green"

Regards

Peter.

P.S. I LOVE YOU

Nicely finished off

Its worth pointing out that to my knowledge your insurance does not include covering the costs of pollution. Certainly that is what I was told when I tried to extend my insurance to include pollution damage

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 23/01/2011 18:52 by Dave McCabe.

Peter, don't misunderstand me. I'm no fan of Herr Winston Clarkson. it's just a matter of perspective. No pollution is acceptable, but our response should be in proportion to the actual quantative level rather than anecdotal or emotive perceptions.

PS: why do folks keep promoting that Ahern book . Wait for the sequel, PS I love you II

OceanFroggie



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 23/01/2011 19:17 by OceanFroggie.

John: In fairness Donal, you did say all was in hand

You are correct I did, Yep the sinking was reported

Colin: Got confirmation that WI and Galway Co Co are aware of the situation and
have the matter in hand


But it was all alone leaking Oil today,

could Tina be correct ?

Donal

Quote:

donaboland1
But it was all alone leaking Oil today,

Do you know if it was diesel or engine oil? Any idea how much in litres or cc it might have been, or the rate per hour in litres or cc?

OceanFroggie

Quote:

OceanFroggie
Peter, don't misunderstand me. I'm no fan of Herr Winston Clarkson. it's just a matter of perspective. No pollution is acceptable, but our response should be in proportion to the actual quantative level rather than anecdotal or emotive perceptions.
PS: why do folks keep promoting that Ahern book . Wait for the sequel, PS I love you II

Hi Ocean,(New friend

I don't know about you, but my perspective tells me that when the river edges and banks are crusted in "Bailey's Cream", and the smell in the air reminds me of a cross-border, diesel launderer's boiler-suit, one's reaction can certainly be anecdotal AND emotive, but hardly takes away from the obvious conclusion, even among the most environmental-skeptics, that something is "wrong" Add to that, having to dispatch half a dozen little "Tweet tweets" with a teaspoon, so that they can join their cousins in the great avery in the sky, would bring a grown man to tears (Ok.....that last bit was a bit OTT.......I think I am suffering from Post -traumatic stress diorder ) but.......smacking the swans with a shovel.....that was hard

Seriously, asking Donal to specifically quantify the leakage from the white boat?..........now where is that coming from?? It reminds me of the fish-farmers looking for proof that their activities caused lice infections, when every study indicated that the lice infestations only happened in areas that contained fish farms

Again, not to be distracted, does anybody know who is responsible for emergency intervention in the event of unexpected pollution events? When salmon and trout rivers have suffered fish kills, I notice it is the CoCos that take charge. BUT - LET me guess - Because the Shannon IS the border between many counties, each CoCo will hive off responsibility onto their neighbour? If ever we needed pressure groups..............

Regards

Peter

P.S.....Me too - The sequel

Peter, that wasn't ment as a sarcastic remark, I just stated how the things are.
Ok, I 've pepped it up a bit to illustrate it but not much.
A police officer told me when I asked him to inform the fire brigade:
1. it's not important enough to react,
2. the fire brigades around are voluntary,
3. the professionals have to deal with real emergencies,
4. the fire brigades have no oil booms,
5. the CoCo has oil booms,
6. do you (really) want me to give it to the CoCo?
7. the CoCo will handle it,
8. they will be informed (not before Monday).

You may ask why I'm interested in this incident. I LOVE the Irish rivers and lakes and the living creatures in and around them.

Let me tell you what happened some years ago to understand my point. On a trip on the River Woodford (SEW) in 2006 we came across an large oil pollution in the afternoon. The spill has been there the whole day as we were told by a local. Nobody reacted and we didn't knew whom to phone except WI. Most people we talked in those days and those Irish to whom we talked about the incident after our holiday told us stories that it wasn't a real emergency, some drops could cause a large spill on the water surface and so on. But in that case it had been thousends of litres.
A small 8 km long tributary and more than 8 km river were affected. The oil was on the surface of the lakes between the mouth of the Woodford and Inish Rath Island and beyond and had also spreaded into the bays and also upstream close to the jetty of Chrom Castle. In that case the relevant Environmental Agency of NI was informed on the next day, a day too late. If immediatelly informed they could had placed a boom and pumps at a small bridge of the tributary a day earlier and most of the spread would have been avoided.

Non-professionals are often unable to estimate the significance of a pollution incident. It's a great pity that professional handling of pollution incidents in Ireland can be rarely seen and that experts are not available or not called.

If you like to read more about our 2006 experience (with phone numbers) look at [www.wasserrausch.de]

Tina
[www.wasserrausch.de]
When the wind of change blows, some build walls, others build windmills.

The person responsible is whoever left that boat at Meelick Quay for the last three/four years. It beats me that nobody knows who owns the boat. There must be some reason that any normal person would just abandon a fine boat like that. I'm not going to speculate on the reasons why.
I guess the EPA is the overall authority and the local coco environmental officer is the one on the spot. Most co. councils give emergency numbers. The County Meath emergency number went unanswered for ten days at Christmas when my water meter froze. Their sad explanation ," technical difficulties".
It's about time we started naming and shaming people in this country and force lazy officials do what they are paid to do.
Any boat abandoned should be brought to the attention of WI and we should hassle them in all ways possible until they lift it.

PJ

I agree PJ but Meelick Quay is not under WIs control (eg like the inside edge of Mountshannon by the slip, and the inner harbour in Terryglass).

OceanFroggie