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OR&R Emergency Response Division Participates in Webinar for Indian Maritime Administration on Coastal Spill Response

On Friday March 24, Doug Helton from OR&R Emergency Response Division led a discussion on spill response practices in the United States with the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, India, and the Indian Maritime Administration.

The webinar was requested and facilitated by the U.S State Department's U.S. Speaker Program. The request resulted from a spill at the Port of Ennore in Chennai about two months ago. Chennai, formerly known as Madras, is a large city in south east India on the Bay of Bengal. On Jan. 28, the outbound ship Maple collided with the inbound Dawn Kanchipuram, and an unknown amount (estimates vary widely but somewhere around 50,000 gallons) of #6 fuel oil was spilled by the Dawn Kanchipuram. The slow and difficult response raised questions by the local nongovernmental organization community.

The other speaker was a retired commodore with Indian Navy who now heads a maritime nongovernmental organization. The audience numbered 35 participants mainly from the Coast Guard and Navy’s fisheries, pollution control and environment departments.

For further information, contact Doug.Helton@noaa.gov.

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Map with pin showing Chennai, India.
Map pinpointing Chennai, India.
Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2022 1:52pm PST