Collecting and managing heavy fuel oil after the sinking of the Grande America

Ravaged for two days by a fire on board, the ro-ro container ship Grande America finally sank hard on March 12, 2019, in the Bay of Biscay. Some of its propulsion fuel escaped, forming a large slick of hydrocarbons on the surface. To prevent an oil spill, 6 decontamination vessels go into action. And the question soon arose: what to do with the 300 m³ of heavy fuel oil recovered, as well as the various materials soiled during the operations ?

General mobilization

Contacted by the armateur du Grande America, teams from SUI, supported by the Séché group, mobilized at the port of La Rochelle. The aim is to pump the fuel oil from the holds of the decontamination vessels, store it temporarily in the port and organize the transport of all this hazardous waste to the appropriate treatment centers. For the 25 SUI employees the intervention will last nearly 10 days.

Mobile crane and safety devices in the port of La Rochelle during the unloading of pollution-removal vessels.

 Resources and expertise

• Realization of a declaration file ICPE (Installation Classée pour la Protection de l’Environnement) provisional (heading 2719) on the port of La Rochelle to authorize the temporary storage of waste
• Organization of liquid waste transfer to a hazardous waste incineration center
• Installation of a mobile crane to unload waste skips from ships
• Setting up watertight solid waste skips to take care of booms and collection nets, soiled during operations at sea
• Organizing the transfer of solid waste to a hazardous waste platform for preparation (cutting of metal chains from nets) prior to incineration

SEA DEPOLLUTION OPERATIONS ? THE GOOD THOUGHT