Spill Notification Point

Competent National Authority

Response Arrangements

The National Disaster Coordinator established a Marine Pollution and Oil Spills Management Committee to prepare a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan in 1989. The members of the Committee, comprising representatives from various departments, the Coastguard and oil industry, drafted a temporary Plan, which envisaged a coordinated response effort.  In 1996 REMPEITC-Carib was requested to assist in redrafting this plan to international ORPC standards.  The National Pollution Contingency Plan was presented to the National Disaster Coordinator in 1997, but its subsequent passage through Parliament is unknown.

At present reliance would be placed on industry resources to combat spills in ports or arising from passing traffic

Response Policy

The draft plan favours the combined approach of containment/recovery, the use of dispersants and manual shoreline cleanup.  Due to severe problems of erosion, manual cleaning methods must be used on sand beaches.  In order to protect the few remaining mangroves in St. Vincent and the more extensive mangroves on the islands of the Grenadines, minimal cleanup should be carried out in these areas. Cleaning of rocky areas should be restricted to hand wiping only.

Equipment

Government & Private

The Coastguard has a small fleet of patrol vessels, one of which has a reasonable deck area which could be used to carry and deploy response equipment. However, there is currently no government-owned specialised pollution equipment in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Shell Antilles and Guianas Ltd. operates a terminal in Kingstown and holds a small stock of pollution response equipment comprising booms and skimmers sufficient to handle a Tier 1 spill at its facility. It is a member of Clean Caribbean and Americas (CCA) and would rely on its resources in the event of a major oil spill.

Previous Spill Experience

St. Vincent and the Grenadines lie to the east of the principal tanker routes and since the prevailing winds and currents are westerly, the islands are not at great risk from a tanker spill and none has been experienced to date.

Compensation

* not yet in force

Regional & Bilateral Agreements

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

Date of issue: January 2009