The Port Authority of Santander has carried out an anti-pollution drill in the port facilities in which, in addition to the intervention groups of the APS itself, personnel from the Maritime Captaincy, Port Pilots, Mooring Men, IH Cantabria, /SASEMAR, with its Base personnel, the tugboat Sar Gabia and the Salvamar Denep, 061, Civil Protection, Dynasol, Hermanos Tricio and Netbos participated.
The main objective of the drill was to train the coordination of the response to the incident by the intervening services and the exchange of information between them and the PMA. The latter, in turn, was in permanent communication with the crisis room of the Operational Coordination Center, CECOP.
The exercise consisted of simulating a hydrocarbon spill from the Dynasol berth to the water surface, which overcomes the containment barrier deployed around the ship’s hull due to the strong southwest wind and spreads outside the limits of the concession, exceeding the terminal’s capacity to deal with the emergency.
Once Dynasol informs the APS of the situation, it decrees the activation of the port’s Internal Maritime Plan (PIM) and convenes the Operational Coordination Center (CECOP), which decides to set up the Advanced Command Post (PMA) on the Maritime Rescue tugboat Sar Gabia.
The exercise was concluded once it was verified that the problem that caused the spill had been solved, and the hydrocarbon had been removed from the water surface. A meeting will be held later to analyze the actions carried out during the drill, as well as the deficiencies detected.
The exercise made it possible to train the intervention for a serious emergency, test the activation of protection mechanisms and verify the actions to be taken to minimize the consequences.
