Oil spill 'must get emergency response'

The federal government should declare a national emergency response to the oil spill
off the coast of Western Australia, conservationists say.
Oil, gas and condensate has been leaking into the Timor Sea for two weeks from a
wellhead platform near PTTEP Australasia's West Atlas oil rig.
Conservation Council WA director Piers Verstegen said on Friday the federal
government had been providing little information on the leak, which on August 21
forced 69 workers to evacuate the facility, about 250km off Australia's northwest
coast.
He said reports from fishermen confirmed the extent and impact of the disaster were
far more significant than authorities were prepared to admit.
"I think it's concerning we're still seeing the federal ministers and the regulatory
authorities playing down the incident," Mr Verstegen told AAP.
"It's obvious to us that this should be declared as some sort of national emergency
and there should be a far greater response than what's been put forward to date."
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is monitoring the site on a daily
basis and has been spraying dispersant to break up the oil slick.
Kimberley Clearwater Fisheries owner and operator George Hamilton said on his return
from a nine-day trip to the area he had seen sick sea life.
He said he also saw heavy oil in the water about 75 nautical miles northeast of the
West Atlas rig, streaming in a northeasterly direction.
"It's definitely spreading," he told AAP.
He also said the dispersant used by AMSA had a strong smell.
"I think most of the smell we were smelling was the dispersant, a fairly strong
kerosene smell," he said.
"We saw a couple of turtles that looked a bit ill on it and also there were a couple
of sea snakes that looked a bit ill.
"A couple of days later we actually saw a dead (snake) in the water so we collected
him and sent him off for some samples."
Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said the federal government was
understating the seriousness of the spill.
"The federal government and the federal minister responsible for this, Martin
Ferguson, is sitting on his hands in Canberra downplaying the situation," Mr
Pritchard said.
"We'd be really interested to know what kind of response there would have been if
this was off the coast of Sydney or Melbourne.
"We're sure there would have been a lot more different response and it would have
been seen as a real environmental emergency.
"But given that it's in a remote area of the Kimberley where there's not many people
that can see it the government are obviously deliberately downplaying it."
Mr Pritchard said as much as 500,000 litres of oil could still be spilling from the
wellhead each day.
"It's a massive amount of oil," he said.
AMSA said on Friday a major part of the slick remained in the vicinity of the
platform and the closest oil to shore was about 170km away.
An AMSA spokeswoman said it was impossible to measure the output of oil from the
wellhead until PTTEP could get onto the platform.
"What we can say is that it has been leaking at a constant rate since the incident
occurred," she said.
Dispersant was used on Friday on oil leaking from the wellhead and containment and
recovery operations had continued.
Two vessels are expected to arrive at the site by Saturday with high capacity pump
deluge equipment to spray the wellhead platform and the West Atlas rig with sea
water to reduce the risk of fire and disperse the gas condensate.
A rig from Indonesia, which will be used in repair efforts at the Montara field, is
expected to arrive next Tuesday.
But it could take up to six weeks before the leak is plugged.