Sampling results from waters near MSC Napoli
Posted: Thursday 25th January 2007
Water sample results taken this week by the Environment Agency near the stricken container ship MSC Napoli so far show no signs of pollution from the oil, pesticides, or other chemicals from the ship.
Samples taken by the Agency from beaches at Branscombe, Sidmouth Jacobs Ladder, Ladram Bay, Seaton, Beer, Sidmouth Town, Budleigh Salterton, Sandy Bay and Exmouth in Devon and Lyme Regis Cobb, Lyme Regis Church, Charmouth West, Seatown, Eypemouth, West Bay West, Burton Bradstock and Abbotsbury in Dorset have been checked for over 165,000 different manmade chemicals by the laboratory at Starcross near Exeter.
Results show that so far there is no pollution from pesticides and other chemicals on the boat along the Devon and Dorset coastline. The samples were taken from Exmouth (Devon) to Abbotsbury in Dorset. Further sampling will be carried out twice a week for the foreseeable future.
Samples of water washing up onto the beaches along the Devon and Dorset coast contain no oil. Some oil has been washed up along the coast but the results suggest there is no ongoing pollution close to the shore at this stage. The salvage company’s contractors will be doing the beach clean-up.
‘The northerly winds means that any oil discharged from the ship is being carried out to sea. These early results are encouraging but there is still a risk of pollution from the cargo or Napoli’s oil particularly while the oil is being removed by the contractors,’ said Graham Green-Buckley for the Environment Agency.
‘We are extending our monitoring and will be taking further samples along the coast as far as Brixham to the west and Portland in the east. We do not think this area has been affected yet but want a full picture of surrounding area. As part of our monitoring we are also taking samples of oil from sea birds affected to confirm the source of contamination.’
The Environment Agency is also taking and storing samples of mussels and limpets. These will be analysed at a later date if a longer term study into the impact of the incident is needed.
There are also plans to monitor the Fleet, a lagoon that lies behind Chesil Beach with high conservation value. It is not expected that any pollution will be found but it is hoped it will give a rounded picture of the environmental impact.
The Agency is sharing its findings with all the relevant organisations including the Maritime & Coastguard Agency, Defra, National Trust, Health Protection Agency, Food Standards Agency, Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), Marine Fisheries Agency, local authorities, and environmental health.
