The EA... Fit for purpose?

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ianc1200 said:
Not sure if this Twitter link will work;

https://twitter.com/Green_Boats

but a sad tale of a boat being sunk at Oxford despite an offer to the EA to sort it out before it did so, being told by the EA "it's not a pollution risk." "only with owner's permission." Now sunk with a 200m oil slick.

Similar in a way to the EA knowing about shoals & not even marking them (let alone dredging); perhaps it is about time boaters/companies who can do something just got on with it & resolved themselves.
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Hullo - first time poster here. I followed the link, but can't work out what the EA have/haven't done wrong. Can you enlighten me?
Thank you.
M
 
M it appears there is a nb opposite the poster on Twitter (Green Boats Services) which was about to sink; Green Boats offered to do something to the EA, but was told not a pollution risk/can do something only with the owners permission. Later tweets had photo's of the boat which indeed did sink, and photo's of the oil slick caused.

Obviously only one side of the story, but if true surely preventative action would have been better in this particular case IMHO.
 
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ianc1200 said:
M it appears there is a nb opposite the poster on Twitter (Green Boats Services) which was about to sink; Green Boats offered to do something to the EA, but was told not a pollution risk/can do something only with the owners permission. Later tweets had photo's of the boat which indeed did sink, and photo's of the oil slick caused.

Obviously only one side of the story, but if true surely preventative action would have been better in this particular case IMHO.
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Thank you. I've read some of the other tweets and responses now so have a better understanding of the situation. What I don't understand though, is why Green Boat Services involved the EA in the first place? If the boat was sinking and they were in a position to do something about it, why didn't they just get on with it? Or is there some arcane Thames byelaw that stopped them from doing the right thing?
 
That's interesting. I suspect you're right. Although I'm not sure who they'd get in trouble with? I can't imagine the boat owner would press charges for trespass or even breaking and entering if their boat had been saved from sinking? Also, were Green Boat Services hoping the EA would foot the bill for the work? Should they? I don't pay my registration fee so the EA can keep sinking boats afloat, I expect the boat owners to take care of that.
 
EA won't foot bills for things like that.

If they have to send a tug to pull a boat off a weir , they will want paying or a reasonable chance of recovering the costs. Tugs usually are only sent if the boat is in danger of damaging the weir structure or obstructing the gate to such an extent that the weir capacity is reduced. If it's just a boat stuck on the guard ropes / piles , usually we advise to contact the nearest boatyard.

Sinking boats the same , it's all very sad when they go down , but pumping boats out costs money , of which we are short of at the moment as I'm sure you are aware. Tugs have to be sent , usually from many miles downriver , factor in the operating costs of the tug and the crew for the day / days and the bill quickly mounts up.

The trouble is that people think we are the fourth emergency service on the river , and it's just not like that. There aren't patrol boats and tugs on every reach with crews waiting to go at a moments notice.
 
We don't always have telephone numbers , the amount of people who don't put a contact number on their licence application ( assuming it was licenced at some time ) is large.

A lot of the time it's just addresses , we could write to them I suppose and tell them that their boat is about to sink ?

I've tracked down boat owners and given them the good / bad news before ( a member on here will vouch for that ) but it really depends on us having up to date contact details.
 
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prof pat pending said:
It does seem in this case that they really couldn't be bothered I'm afraid

Read throught the tweets, they asked the location a number of times, claimed no knowledge despite havng sent PM's to GBS
https://twitter.com/EnvAgencySE/status/487148206825177088
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Hmmm. I don't think we can rely on a Twitter conversation to give us the full facts. I see the lock keeper was advised, so I assume they would have assessed the situation and/or liaised with the people on the incident hotline in making the decision not to act? Which, unless it's their responsibility to rescue sinking boats, I guess they were right to do. A 200m oil slick doesn't sound good though. Surprised that didn't make the news, as I would have thought the impact would have been pretty horrendous. If it's really that bad, then the EA have definitely made an error of judgement. Is there anyone in the area who can let us know?

Mind you, a tiny bit of oil gets dispersed a long way in water. It sits on the surface a fraction of a milimetre thick. You can see it- it has a rainbow-like sheen - but it doesn't cause any harm and quite quickly breaks down. So one of my angling friends told me once anyway. Perhaps the 'slick' looked a lot worse than it was?

I guess we'll never know the full facts unless the EA issue a statement - but it does seem to me that, unless there really was a major oil leak from the boat, they've got more stick than they deserve over this particular incident.

M
 
The EA tweets are correct I'm afraid.

If it's not causing an environmental issue or a navigation hazard ( which being moored up , it won't ) then it's not really down to us to do anything , sorry if it's not what you want to hear.

I doubt it was an 'oil slick' , it's not a supertanker. More likely the bilge water washing out , as Margot says, a little bit of oil goes a log way. We regularly get 200m oil blooms on the lock cut as boats moored on our moorings pump out their bilges. It quickly disperses , it's not heavy oil. The fuel tanks are watertight as is the engine oil ( you might get a bit of seepage , but not much )

If it was in the fairway , and it sank , that's a different matter.

As I said earlier , if contact details were a available via NLS , then maybe someone could have given the owner a call , but we don't always have them.
 
I've seen this done before , you either need to seal it up and get a MONSTER pump that can pump it out faster than it can get back in , or you need a crane barge , lift it until the gunwales are at water level and then chuck pumps in , as it rises , keep lifting gently with the crane until the gunwales are clear enough that there is no chance of water slopping back in.

Doubt the FB have pumps big enough to be honest.
 
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