Oil spill on Lee navigation February 2018

The request was successful.

Dear Environment Agency,

1) Regarding oil spills on inland waterways managed by the Canal and River Trust, what protocol does the EA have in place for co-operation with the CRT?

2) There was an oil spill on the Lee navigation near Tottenham in February 2018. When was EA first contacted about it?

3) What measures were taken to engage boaters living on the navigation, either through CRT or directly?

4) How many EA staff were appointed to deal with the spill?

5) Please release all recorded communications between the EA and the CRT regarding the Lee oil spill.

Yours faithfully,

Fanny Malinen

Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

5 Attachments

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Enquiries, Unit, Environment Agency

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Dear Fanny

  

I have passed your e-mail to the local customer team who will deal with
your request.

 

The Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations
state that a public authority must respond to requests for information
within 20 working days, but we aim to respond to all enquiries as quickly
as we can.

 

You can find more information about our service commitment by clicking on
the link below:

 

[1]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

 

You can contact our customer team directly on the contact details below,
or call the National Customer Contact Centre on 03708 506506 who will
transfer you to the area team. 

 

Please quote your enquiry reference 180302/KS02 in any correspondence with
us regarding this matter.  

 

Customers and Engagement
Environment Agency
Hertfordshire and North London Area
Alchemy
Bessemer Road
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire
AL7 1HE

 

Kind regards

 

Kathy Speight

Customer Service Adviser,

Contact Centre Services - Part of Operations, Regulation & Customer

 

( Tel: 03708 506 506

: Web Site: [2]www.gov.uk/environment-agency

 

Click an icon to keep in touch with us:-

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HNL Enquiries, Environment Agency

5 Attachments

Dear Fanny,

 

Thank you for your email of 26 February 2018 regarding the oil pollution
on the Pymmes Brook and River Lee.

 

We respond to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and
Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

 

1)     Regarding oil spills on inland waterways managed by the Canal and
River Trust, what protocol does the EA have in place for co-operation with
the CRT?

 

We have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Canal & River Trust
(CRT) concerning oil pollution. This lays out how we manage Category 1 and
Category 2 incidents and CRT will manage Category 3 and Category 4
incidents (this is not restricted to just oil pollution). CRT support our
response to Category 1 and 2 pollution incidents and provide us with local
contacts that match our area boundaries. Both organisations can then
develop local working arrangements to deal with pollution incidents
affecting CRT waterways in line with the MoU.

 

2)     There was an oil spill on the Lee navigation near Tottenham in
February 2018. When was EA first contacted about it?

 

We received the first report of oil pollution on the Pymmes Brook and
River Lea at 11:20am on 11 February. We received a second report at 11:25
and with the help of the reporter, were able to establish the nature of
the incident (a thick, black oil slick covering the full surface of the
river).

 

Within an hour of confirming the nature of the incident, we had sent out
officers and notified the Canal & River Trust (CRT). We notified the Swan
Sanctuary of the incident 43 minutes after the confirmed incident,
following a call from the public informing us of swans in distress.

 

Within 2 hours of receiving the first report of the incident, Environment
Officers had arrived on site and, after identifying the polluting outfall,
notified Thames Water. We also notified our Operations team to carry out
our initial response which included re-fixing a boom at the confluence of
the Pymmes Brook and the Lea. This was done to prevent the spread of oil
further down the watercourse and aid in the clear-up.

 

3)     What measures were taken to engage boaters living on the
navigation, either through CRT or directly?

 

As CRT hold a direct relationship with boaters all engagement was carried
out through them. The result of this helped with removing oil and debris
which had collected around moored boats as well as preventing boats
passing through our absorbent and containment booms.

 

4)     How many EA staff were appointed to deal with the spill?

 

At any single point we had 10 Environment Agency staff members working on
the response to the oil pollution. However, the total number of staff that
have helped throughout our response is much higher than this.

 

5)     Please release all recorded communications between the EA and the
CRT regarding the Lee oil spill.

 

All recorded communications between ourselves and CRT can be accessed via
this link [1]https://ea.sharefile.com/d-saae947c5e134... for one week.
Please note that information has been redacted due to public interest and
our ongoing investigation.

 

Please get in touch if you have any further queries or contact us within
two months if you would like us to review the information we have sent.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Jamie Thompson BSc (Hons)

Customers and Engagement Officer | Environmental Planning and Engagement
(EPE)

Environment Agency | Alchemy | Bessemer Road | Welwyn Garden City |
Hertfordshire | AL7 1HE

 

( 020 3025 1631

* [2]HNL[Environment Agency request email]

 

From: Enquiries, Unit
Sent: 02 March 2018 13:39
To: 'Fanny Malinen' <[FOI #467520 email]>
Subject: RE: 180302/KS02 - Freedom of Information request - Oil spill on
Lee navigation February 2018

 

Dear Fanny

  

I have passed your e-mail to the local customer team who will deal with
your request.

 

The Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations
state that a public authority must respond to requests for information
within 20 working days, but we aim to respond to all enquiries as quickly
as we can.

 

You can find more information about our service commitment by clicking on
the link below:

 

[3]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

 

You can contact our customer team directly on the contact details below,
or call the National Customer Contact Centre on 03708 506506 who will
transfer you to the area team. 

 

Please quote your enquiry reference 180302/KS02 in any correspondence with
us regarding this matter.  

 

Customers and Engagement
Environment Agency
Hertfordshire and North London Area
Alchemy
Bessemer Road
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire
AL7 1HE

 

Kind regards

 

Kathy Speight

Customer Service Adviser,

Contact Centre Services - Part of Operations, Regulation & Customer

 

( Tel: 03708 506 506

: Web Site: [4]www.gov.uk/environment-agency

 

Click an icon to keep in touch with us:-

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Dear Jamie,

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately in response to my question #5, the link doesn't work - it seems to have timed out already. Could you send me a new one?

Thanks a lot.

Best regards,

Fanny Malinen

HNL Enquiries, Environment Agency

Thank you for your email.

 

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possible within the next 10 working days.

 

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Information Act or Environmental Information Regulations we must respond
to you within 20 working days.  You may wish to look at [1]www.data.gov.uk
to see if the data you have requested is available for you online.

 

For further information on what you can expect from us and our full
service commitment to you, please click this link;
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...

 

Kind regards

 

Regards

 

Customers and Engagement Team

Environment Agency, Hertfordshire and North London area  

 

Environmental Incident

 

If your email was to report an environmental incident i.e. pollution, fish
in distress, dumping of hazardous waste etc. then please call our
Freephone 24 hour Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60. For more details
about incident reporting please see our website:
[3]https://www.gov.uk/report-an-environment...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Information in this message may be confidential and may be legally privileged. If you have received this message by mistake, please notify the sender immediately, delete it and do not copy it to anyone else.

We have checked this email and its attachments for viruses. But you should still check any attachment before opening it.
We may have to make this message and any reply to it public if asked to under the Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act or for litigation. Email messages and attachments sent to or from any Environment Agency address may also be accessed by someone other than the sender or recipient, for business purposes.
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HNL Enquiries, Environment Agency

Good morning Fanny,

I apologise for the problem with the first link, please find the files using this new one https://ea.sharefile.com/d-s266353a80c34....

If you have any further issues please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Jamie Thompson BSc (Hons)
Customers and Engagement Officer | Environmental Planning and Engagement (EPE)
Environment Agency | Alchemy | Bessemer Road | Welwyn Garden City | Hertfordshire | AL7 1HE

020 3025 1631
HNL[Environment Agency request email]

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