The Amorgos Incident andEstablishing Oil Spill Response
System in Taiwan

Mr. Shean-Rong Cheng, Director General
Bureau of Water Quality Protection
Environment Protection Administration
March 6th, 2002

Contents
I.

Review of the Amorgos Incident

II. Establishment of the Major Oil Spill
Response System
Ⅲ. Conclusion2II. Review of the Amorgos Incident
1. Forward:? The Amorgos, a-3,5000-ton Greek Cargo fullloaded with ore departed from India for
Mainland China , had lost its power andstranded in the waters off the coast of Oluanpi,
Pingtung County, the Southern Part of Taiwan,
at the night of Jan. 14th, 2001, after 12 hours’drifting.

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? The 14th Ocean Patrol Team of the Coast
Guard Administration (CGA) rescued the crews
at the initial stage of stranding.
? Due to bad meteorological condition, the fuel oil
began leaking from the Amorgos on Jan. 18,
2001 and contaminated nearby coastline andcoral reef. Considering terrain restriction, ocean
phenomenon and ecological protection area, theclean-up had been carefully planned.

4Stranded Location of theAmorgos
21.55 latitude
120.52 longitude?

Contaminated Area

Lighthouse of Oluanpi

The Stranded Location of the Amorgos

2. Events of the Incident?Initial Stage (Jan. 14 ~ Jan. 19)?Rescue process:Around 8 PM of Jan. 14th, both the Taipei
Mission Control Center of the Salvage and theArmy Rescue Center received the reportingfrom Keelung coast radio station. A rescue
mission was launched immediately. At 9 PM,
the Army Rescue Center coordinated the thevessels of Maritime Patrol Agency and theseagull helicopter of Air Force, and all 25 crewsof the Amorgos were safely rescued around 11PM.
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?Approach to anti-leakage:?According to the Article 13 of Regulations forSalvaging Ocean Disasters, the Hwalien Harbor
Bureau, the Ministry of Transportation andCommunication (MOTC), established a crisis
management center on Jan. 15, 2001. Thecenter kept sending mail, fax and phone calls toadvise the ship owner and insurance company
to avoid enlarging the damage of oil
pollution in the shortest time. Even further, thecenter contacted the SMIT salvaging company
in Singapore and filed application for related
rescue works. Nevertheless, the deteriorated
whether had confined the mission to beexecuted.
7?Upon receiving a phone call from theKaohsiung Harbor Bureau reporting oilleakage from the ship in the morning on Jan.
15,
theEnvironmental
Protection
Administration (EPA) immediately notified theEnvironmental Protection Bureau of PingtungCounty, and commended it to supervise thesituation according to Article 32 of the Ocean
Pollution Prevention Act and contact theHwalien Harbor to demand the shipping
company to extract the oil from the ship lest it
should pollute ocean.
8? Meanwhile, the Center for Space and Remote
Sensing Research of the National Central
University was asked to assist in remotesurvey and evidence collection, so as toascertain the distribution of oil pollution.
? On Jan. 18, the hull cracked and oil began toleak. The EPA advised the shipping companyof its liability. The EPA also asked the ChinesePetroleum Corporation (CPC) for help in oilpollution settlement. However, the weather
condition was bad and ships were not able togo out to sea.
9?Emergency Response Stage (Jan.20 ~ Feb. 4)? The sluggish traffic in the oil contaminatedcoast area and Long Kun Area’s specificterrain caused the difficulties for personnel
access. The oil stuck at coral reef tidal trenchand pool and polluted the coral reef thatmade the cleanup difficult.

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? During the period of incident occurred, northeast monsoon and down-hill wind were strong,which resulted in bad ocean condition andoperational difficulties.
? The EPA had demanded the shipping agency
to increase manpower for cleanup andrequested ship owner to summit an effective
clean-up plan before the 5th of Feb.
? The EPA also requested relevant agencies toengage in collecting related evidence forfurther compensation claiming.
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? Clean-up Period? Until Feb. 3rd, up to 217.6-ton oil had beendrawn out by the workers hired by shipowners.
? On February 6th, the EPA invited theMinistry of the Interior (MOI), the MOTC,
the Ministry of National Defense (MND), theCGA, CPC and local government agencies toorganize the details of the clean-up plan andits follow-up.

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3.Pollution Situation :? The offshore areas of Long Kun (started fromPai-Sa-Pi to Kun-Tze-Nee about 3.5 kilometers inlength) was polluted by fuel oil, and the serious
polluted areas were estimated about 750 ~900
meters long. So far, all of the clean-up works
have been completed.
? The residue oil and ore in the wreck had been
removed completely. The wreck hull, in addition
to the stem and stern, had been broken intopieces.
? The sea surface has no more sign of oil pollution,and the water quality from seawater examination
also appeared to meet the standard at presenttime.
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4. Offshore cleaning situation
Items.

Coast- Greasiness

TimingThrowing Cleaning and Handling The Cleaning Volumeof the Waste.
Manpower the Greasiness Volume
Grand total(Manpower)

Grand total(Ton)Grand total(Cubic Meter)

1/25~2/16*9,794462-

2/17~3/24

21,560513

2,071

3/25~5/18

34,896549

3,574

Dredge Up
Coast- Greasiness
Cleaning* : Including military soldiers approximately 8000 manpower

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?Considering safety and prevention of the oceanic
ecology from violating, we adopted the forms ofnatural force to decompose the pollution the stain on
the reef rocks. Water jet was used to wash off thestains on the upper area of the tide flat. The cleanuparea was 6,987 square meters and recovery effectwas evident. Thus, the reservation area has beenreopened recently.

5. The pumping situation of the residue oil inship:? The civil vessels hired by ship owner dredged up
366.4 tons of oil on June 12.
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6. Wreck Removal Work:? A task force of cargo removal was organized by
the MOTC. The task force was originallyestablished to buoy up the wreck hull andremoved it to a proper location. Owing to theinfluence of typhoons, the ship was broken into
several sections, the plan was then modified. The
wreck removal work was not conducted untilApril, 2001, when the weather condition becamefair .
? So far, the ore in the wreck had been completed
dredged out.
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? The precautious measurement of secondary
pollution:? Monitoring: Keeping visual contact from thewatching ship during daytime and dividing theemployees into three shifts at night.
? Operational method: deployed boom, sorbent,dispersant.
? Regarding pumping operation, any leaking
situation happened should be handling inemergency.

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? If any floating oil or waste were found, theyshould be swept away, dredge out and set into
barrel or bag.
? Asking CPC for providing vessels andKaohsiung Harbor Bureau to stand by on thesecond line. In case of any situation happened,
they could support the cleaning work
immediately .

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7. The measurement to reduce the impact
on ecosystem :? Given fragments of the destructive wreckage theprecedence over the removal : in addition to thecabin sheet on shore and the fragments in the
wave-strap that had been removed on Aug. 9th
and 10th, the civil company hired by ship ownerand the related units were checking up thesurrounding water areas and the fragments ofwreckage on shore for the rapid removal.

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? In order to adopt the measurement in time toreduce the impact on ecological environment, theAdministration of Kenting National Park
committedNationalTaiwanUniversityand National Oceanic Biological Museum toinvestigate and conduct research the influence
data of the ecological environment in this waterarea.
? Administration of the Kenting National Park hadenhanced the control of personnel entering toprevent from any inappropriate demolition.

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8. Claims and recovery :? The EPA committed attorneys and summoned
the experts of Pingtung County Government,
the Council of Agriculture and theAdministration of Kenting National Park…etc,
aiming at the damage of fishery, ecology,maritime and pollution cleaning to conduct
investigation and evaluation for claimed
request.

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? The statistic work has been completed in thefirst stage so far, and the second stage ofdamage evaluation in ecology and economics(fishery, sightsee) is handled by theinternational expertise company that iscommitted by the EPA.
? The sequential recovery was also actively
proceed with the project, assessment andinvestigation by the Administration ofKenting National Park and the Council ofAgriculture respectively.
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II. Establishment of the Major Oil Spill
Response System
1.Preface:? According to the Article 10 of Ocean Pollution
Prevention Act, which was promulgated on Nov.
1st, 2000, the central Competent Authority
should draft a Marine Oil Pollution Contingency
Plan and submit it to the Executive Yuan for
approval.

2. The Scope of Application :?The oil tankers accidents that will or could resultin oil leaking .
?Whenever there are the shipwreck or otheraccidents, which will or could result in leakage
and then will or could endanger the humanhealth or pollute the environment seriously.
?Any emitting, spill, leaking and discarding
waste or hazardous materials that will or could
endanger the human health or pollute theenvironment seriously?Dumping waste, sewerage or fuel oil to pollute
the marine environment seriously.
53.Notification System:? Upon receiving the notification of oceanic oil
pollution from local authority, maritime salvage
unit and related unit, should inform the EPA
and the General Maritime Patrol Agency of theCGA.
? The EPA has to evaluate whether the oceanic
pollution belongs to the major incidents. If theanswer is affirmative, then, the EPA shouldreport to Executive Yuan to convey Major
Marine Pollution Management Task Force andset up a Major Marine Pollution Emergency
Response Center.
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Petroleum Industries, Local Authority, Maritime Salvage Units,
Other Relevant Agencies

Notification of Oceanic Pollution
On Duty
On & Off Duty
Notifying
Off Duty
Notifying
On duty employee in the EPA
The Water Quality Protection of the EPA

Tier 2Tier 1
Evaluation and Judgment

Advising the Authority toCoordinate with the related
units to adopt the action

Tier 3Advising Local Authority toCoordinate the Related
Respond Agencies

Major Marine Pollution Management Task Force, Executive Yuan

Supervising Notifying
The convener of emergent center of major oceanic pollution: The Administrator of the EPA

Each Authority Unit

Supervising Notifying

Notifying

Deploying Supervising
Related Central
Internal Response Group
Government Agencies

Deploying

Notifying

Deploying

Supervising

Local Authorities

Notifying

AssistanceNon
Government

Organization

Seashore
Handling

CenterMaritime
Handling

CenterFishing Harbor
Handling

CenterCommercial
HarborHandling
Center

Local

Government

Deploying

1.Following the authorized responsibility, an in-situ Response Center will be established to proceed the related operationand data collection.
2. Following the command of the Major Marine Pollution Response Center to conduct the related measures.
3. Reporting the situation to the Major Marine Pollution Response Center.

Flow chart of the notification system for major marine pollution.

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4.Organizations and Their Responsibilities? The members of the Emergency Response Center
for major marine pollution incidents :? EPA, MOI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic
Affairs, MOTC, MND, Ministry of Justice,
Department of Health, CGA, ResearchDevelopment and Evaluation Commission,Council of Agriculture and National Science
council of the Executive Yuan (Structureshown as figure 1).

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? Each member should set up an internalresponse group simultaneously to execute therelated events.
? Each member of the Emergency Response
Center has to conduct its duty.
? The name-list of the Emergency Response
Center has to be kept updated from time totime.

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Emergency Response Center for major marine pollution incidents

Compensation Claiming Group (the EPA, Ministry ofFinance, Council of Agriculture and Ministry of Interior)News Communicating Group (Government InformationOffice)Foreign Affairs (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry ofInterior)Transportation Group (Ministry of Transportation andCommunications)
Emergency Medical Care Group (Department of Health)
Supporting Group for Public business and business unit
(Ministry of economics)
Ecology Re-Nourishment (EPA, Council of Agriculture andMinistry of Interior)
Handling Group for Pollution Cleaning Information (EPA ,Council of Agriculture and Ministry of Economics)
Investigating & Controlling Group for Fishery and Ecologic
Resources (Council of Agriculture and Ministry of Interior)
The Cleaning Assessment Group for the accidental vessel removal andpossible polluted subjects on the ship. (Ministry of Communications,Coastguard Cruising Bureau and Ministry of National Defense)
Surveying Group to the Pollution on the Sea and Seashore (Bureau ofEPA, Ministry of Communications, Coastguard Cruising Bureau andMinistry of National Defense)
Pollution Controlling and Cleaning Group of the Fishing Harbor(Council of Agriculture)
Pollution Controlling and Cleaning Group of the Commercial Harbo r(Ministry of Communications)
Pollution Controlling and Cleaning Group for Maritime (Coastguard
Cruising Bureau and Ministry of National Defense)
Pollution Controlling and Cleaning Group for Seashore (EPA,Ministry of Communications, Coastguard Cruising Bureau andMinistry of Interior)

Figure 1. The Structure of the Emergency Response Center for major marine oceanic pollution incidents

5.Establishing the Emergency Response Center
for major marine pollution incidents? Establishing the Emergency Response Center
for major marine pollution incidents , setting up
the related units by vertical and horizontal
connecting channel and using the electronic
information and satellite communicating
equipment,
providescommanderandresponding agencies with the update disastersituation when accidents being happened, andissue the order to avoid pollution enlargement.
30? Employing
theappropriate
fundorsupplementary budget to purchase the boom,skimmers,sorbent, dispersant, personal
protecting gear and handling outfit andestablishing Mobil Emergency Response Center
to strengthen the response capability.
? Contracting out the clean-up work for urgent
marine pollution accidents on the northern,
central and southern regions of Taiwan andmobilizing the civil manpower and efficiency tocleanup the oceanic pollution.

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6. Establishing International Cooperation,Conducting Pollution Prevention R & D andTraining? Establishing remote sensing technologies anddigital map. Developing ocean model system toevaluate and predict the major oceanic pollution.
? Conducting a research to develop acompensation claiming guidance for major
marine pollution incidents.

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? Holding five domestic training programs (362
officials from relevant government agencieswere trained); and one on-scene commander
training program in UK (25 officials weretrained).
? Holding and participating in domestic joint
drills (7 times) , and desktop exercise ( 100officials participated in) ; holding a Hands-on
Oil Spill Response Training in Canada ( 70officials were involved).

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Ⅲ. Conclusion? Taiwan, Republic of China, like Japan, is aoceanic nation as well as the shipping center in
the South-East Asia. Thus, the navigation had
brought the oceanic pollution whose burden andrisk and the organized work of the handlingabilities became more and more important than
ever.

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? According to expertise's presumption, if ournation intends to be capable of handling themajor marine pollution, it will take five years atleast. In addition to integrate the manpower
resources in each authority and the commonconsensus supported by the publics, our nation
will continuously obtain technical andmanpower support from our international
friends through various cooperation framework
in mutual effort for protecting our earth andmarine environment.

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