by Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Fuel spills have plagued Weymouth Harbour this season – two on the same day, although both were quickly dealt with.
One of the leaks came from the harbour’s new fuel facility which is still out of action as a result.
Dorset Council’s harbours manager Ed Carter praised staff for their quick action over two spills on November 18th, surrounding the spillages with booms to stop them spreading.
Both incidents led to the activation of the harbour contingency plan – one involved diesel from the bilge of a vessel receiving bunkers from shoreside. Mr Carter said the person onboard had put the pump in the wrong place , causing the spillage.
He said the second incident involved the new fuel pontoon which was having a final testing on the fitting of a payment system. He said an underwater pipe had failed with diesel coming out of it, resulting in harbour staff deploying a double ring boom.
He told the council harbours committee that the fuel pontoon remained inactive and will need to be rectified with an update report expected in the New Year.
In each of the cases the volume of diesel entering the water was only a small amount, “a few litres, rather than tens of litres”, said committee chairman, Cllr Rob Hughes.
Mr Carter said that over the summer the harbour had suffered multiple, minor, spillages near the Commercial Road pontoons where the source could not be identified. It was only towards the end of the season that a vessel was identified as having issues when cold starting early in the morning.
Mr Carter said the vessel was no longer in the harbour and is having maintenance work carried out on its engine over the winter.
