Spill Notification Point

Competent National Authority

Response Arrangements

St. Kitts and Nevis National Oil Spill Contingency Plan is currently under revision and forms a part of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Disaster Plan.

The lead agency for government control during an oil spill is the St. Kitts and Nevis Coast Guard,  part of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Coast Guard provides overall control of spill response and designates an On Scene Commander (OSC), who chairs an Oil Spill Coordination Team. This is composed of representatives of interested parties including the Ministry of Health (which provides environmental advice), the Office of Disaster Preparedness of the National Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Public Works, St. Kitts and Nevis Police, St. Kitts and Nevis Port Authority and shipping associations.

In practice, government would call upon oil industry resources as a first tier of response, after which assistance would be sought from adjacent Caribbean island states using alerting procedures identified in the Caribbean Islands OPRC Plan.

Response Policy

St. Kitts and Nevis adopts the approach of containment/recovery and manual shoreline cleanup. There is no defined policy on dispersant use, but there are no dispersants or application equipment locally available.

Small or moderate volumes of oily beach material could be disposed of at the local public refuse tip (possibly with the additional requirement of quicklime stabilisation), but larger volumes and bulk liquid oily wastes would probably have to be exported for final treatment and disposal.

Equipment

Government

The government has no specialised equipment. However, the Department of Public Works is responsible for locating local labour and mechanical earthmoving equipment. 

Private

Only limited resources for oil spill response, held by the Sol Group., are on the islands. In addition, three tankers on long term charter to Shell carry on board oil pollution response equipment for use by shoreside personnel. Texaco West Indies Ltd. is a member of Clean Caribbean & Americas (CCA), based in Florida, and has access to the resources held by them. No specialist oil spill cleanup contractors are locally available.

Very few vessels, other than small fishing boats, are available for at sea response. Helicopters for air surveillance are not available in St. Kitts, but are available from nearby island states. Fixed wing charter aircraft are available from local firms at the Robert L Bradshaw International Airport.  Salvage, heavy powered tug boats are available at St Eustatius.

Previous Spill Experience

Minor spills from commercial vessel traffic have occurred. The sinking of the barge VISTA BELLA (1991) resulted in a large spill which contaminated many shores. The main tourist beaches were cleaned manually, and the wastes disposed of to landfill at the public refuse site. 

Compensation

* not yet in force

Regional & Bilateral Agreements

• Cartagena Convention (with states of the Wider Caribbean Region).

Date of issue: December 2009