Simon Bridges National MP simonbridges.co.nz

I've been living at Mount Maunganui for 10 years now. Like most in Tauranga, I moved here because of my love for the lifestyle and pristine beaches we have. It was a shock for me therefore when I learned last week that the cargo ship Rena had driven onto the Astrolabe reef and that there was 1700 tonnes of oil onboard, as well as dangerous containers.

All of us want to know why and how such a terrible thing could happen and two government inquiries are underway. But at the moment, the government's focus is on the oil spill and preventing as much of it from spilling as possible.

Then there are the containers to deal with and to delicately remove onto the large ship Pencaldo that arrived from Australia this week and of course the ongoing clean up of the shoreline.

Last Sunday evening oil began being pumped off the Rena onto the Awanuia. This is a slow and surprisingly fraught and complicated process, depending on a variety of factors, including the viscosity of the oil. It is also highly weather dependent. Oil has reached our shoreline and it is highly likely more will.

Questions, hard questions, are to be expected. Some will be armchair critics about all of this. But it is important to appreciate that this is an exceptionally rare global incident. Two or three similar events occur in the world annually and this is slightly different and rates at the highest level of complexity given how far onto the reef the vessel is. In addition, we are doing everything possible that can be done and we are doing so with not just some of the best experts in the world, but with the best experts in the world. I have met a number of times with the salvage team and various other groups involved. They are very modest, but are clearly the best. They say we are acting faster than what occurs in other countries.

In addition to expertise, there is manpower and resources aplenty. Hundreds of Maritime and Conservation staff as well as military are in Tauranga. Hundreds more are on standby. We have helicopters, naval ships and much more. The headquarters for the operation are at the old Foodtown on Cameron Road where at any given time there are hundreds inside working, not to mention on the water. Please don't visit – they are very busy. None of this tragedy is a question of expertise, manpower or resources.

Yet the operation to deal with the oil, the clean up on the shore and then the weeks of getting containers off Rena and salvaging the ship is, as I have said, as complex and as tough as it gets. It involves architectural, physics, maritime and meteorological understanding – all working against each other at times.

That said, there will, I am sure, be a role for all of us to play in coming days and weeks as we clean up and keep people's morale high. For the moment if you see oiled wildlife or oil on the shore don't deal with it yourself, but phone 0800 OIL SPILL (0800 645774).
If you want to volunteer to help with the wildlife phone 0800 333 771. I appreciate how frustrating it is, but please don't touch or clean up the oil yourself unless you are part of the authorised teams involved. To do so may cause you harm and can be very counter productive for the environment.

Answering questions on Rena

1. What are government's environmental priorities?

The main concern is the 1700 tonnes of heavy oil on the Rena, of which an estimated 350 tonnes has leaked. The second priority is the 80 tonnes of hazardous goods, albeit these raise greater occupational safety risks for the salvage operation than environmental risks to the Bay of Plenty community. The third is the risk to shipping from the containers lost overboard.

2. Why was oil not removed from the vessel earlier?

The heavy oil tanks on the Rena are serviced by pipes in the duct keel which was extensively damaged when the ship hit the reef. The time-critical issue in getting the heavy oil off the ship was putting together the alternative pipe system to enable the tanks to be emptied. A further priority was pumping oil out of the bow tanks, which were damaged, into the stern tanks. An additional complication was intrusions within the tanks that made the job of getting the pumps in from the top difficult. Even if the oil transfer vessel, the Awanuia, had arrived prior to Sunday it would not have changed the time when the pumping could have started.

3. Why were booms not placed to contain the oil around the ship?

Booms are only useful in very specific circumstances and their performance varies with the type of oil and sea conditions. They don't work in a chop of more than 0.5 metres or in any significant sea current. The fuel oil in the ship is heavy grade and can float below the surface, also making booms less effective in this spill. Absorption booms are being used in some of the estuaries, but are limited to areas where there is low current.

4. What about the environmental safety of the dispersant being used?

Dispersants help reduce the harm of an oil spill by breaking up the oil and thus reducing the toll on birdlife. It is most effective as soon as possible after the oil enters the ocean. Five dispersants were trialled because different formulations work differently on different oil types. The dispersant being used, Corexit 9500, is approved by the Environmental Protection Authority and has a low eco-toxicity. It is similar to dishwashing liquid or washing powder. It can have ecological effects in shallow waters that exceed its benefits and, as a consequence, its use is being limited to deeper waters. The government is taking a cautious approach to its use, but decisions on this, like on other parts of the operation, are being made by technical experts.