It's also 'not feasible' to lay booms across all of S'pore’s waterfronts, coastlines, said the Transport Minister.
SINGAPORE – The containment booms laid around a damaged vessel at Pasir Panjang Terminal were not intended to “fence in” the oil that has been spilt, but rather, were preventive in nature against any further spillage from the vessel, said Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat on June 24.after it was hit by the Netherlands-flagged dredging boat Vox Maxima, leading to 400 metric tonnes of oil being leaked into the sea at about 2.20pm on June 14.
The containment booms, he added, can help to catch some of the oil that remained near the incident site and did not float elsewhere. “But this is also not 100 per cent foolproof, because the tidal currents and waves can carry the oil... below or above the booms,” said Mr Chee.Addressing queries on why preventive booms were not laid out across all of Singapore’s waterfronts and coastlines, Mr Chee said it is “not feasible” to deploy booms across the country’s entire coastline.
In response to a question on possible improvements to response times, Mr Chee said the immediate priority for MPA’s response was to ensure that the vessel was safe and no further oil leaked from the damaged tank.In all, more than 3,400m of booms have been laid to help contain trapped oil from flowing back into the sea, and prevent oil remnants from being washed ashore and into Singapore’s inland canals.
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