If the risk of a oil spill on the French coasts seems to be dismissed, that of air pollution is indeed present after the collision between two ships off England on Monday.
This Tuesday, the fire is still raging off England. Yesterday, an American oil tanker and a Portuguese cargo collided in the morning. The second was carrying an undefined amount of alcohol and fifteen containers of sodium cyanide, a flammable and very toxic gas. “The fire raged overnight and it is still underway on Tuesday morning,” the director of the port of Grimsby told AFP Martyn Boyers. A kerosene leak on the oil tanker has been pointed out, causing the doubt of an ecological disaster in a very popular fishing area, some Boulonnais ships go there in particular each year in the spring.
Air pollution “depending on the wind”?
According to Nicolas Tamic, operations manager and assistant to the director of CEDRE (Center for documentation, research and experiments on accidental water pollution), “given the blaze aboard the ship, it is a safe bet that most of the cargo will have been consumed. If this is atmospheric pollution. Depending on the wind, it is possible that it is also on the ground,” he said to BFMTV. The risk of pollution of the French coasts would therefore be at this atmospheric stage, while the suspicion of a oil spill currently seems to be dismissed.
On the other hand, if a heavy fuel oil drew into the sea, it could spread easily. In particular through surface currents which would take the direction of the Southeast to arrive in France. A situation, for the time being, completely hypothetical. “The average flow is directed from the Atlantic to the North Sea” abounds the French Research Institute Ifremera first reassuring element for the French coasts. Only the wind could change the situation. “The wind can significantly modify the proposed circulation scheme. The southwest winds will tend to increase the average transit to the east. Conversely, the north-east to north-east winds will decrease this circulation and are even likely to reverse it,” specifies the Ifremer. For its part, the Institute of Belgian Natural Sciences does not provide for reversal of currents in the coming hours. Le Touquet, Boulogne or Dunkirk therefore seem protected from possible pollution.
For the time being, 36 people have been evacuated healthy and saves after the violent collision, a person was injured and taken directly to the hospital. In addition, one of the 14 cargo crew members was still missing at the end of the evening, according to the company Ernst Russ, owner of the ship. The oil tanker started from the port of Agio Theodoroi, Greece on February 27 to join Immingham in England. The weather conditions at sea were “reasonable”, with “waves of about two meters”, said yesterday the director general of the port of Grimsby East at the microphone of Sky News. On the other hand, there was “a lot of fog”.
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11:08 – The wind as a bulwark for the French coastline
If the risk of a oil spill seems to be dismissed, kerosene that has ignited could create high air pollution. And France could be affected by this natural disaster, on the other hand, everything will depend on a factor: the wind. “The wind can significantly modify the proposed circulation scheme. The southwest winds will tend to increase the average transit to the east. Conversely, the north-east to north-east winds will decrease this circulation and are even likely to reverse it, indicates theIfremer. Fortunately for the French coasts, for the moment, an inversion of currents is not planned, as indicated by the Institute of Belgian Natural Sciences. The currents therefore go from south to north at this location should therefore repel the danger.