Page 63: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 1993)

Report States Substantial

Spill Risk

With Mid-Deck Tankers

In a recently released report from

Pyramid Systems, an engineering computing firm in Denville, N.J., found that tankers with mid-deck bulkheads could cause a major oil spill during many grounding inci- dents where no spillage would occur with the same grounding of a double- hull tanker.

The firm conducted the study for the Tanker Advisory Center, New

York, N.Y., as part of a review of several reports which have evalu- ated the effect of the tanker design on an oil spill. In the study, Pyramid

Systems focused on the question of "How much oil would spill from a mid-deck tanker in grounding inci- dents that would cause no oil losses from a double-hull vessel of equal size?" Pyramid used the report "Probabilistic Oil Outflow of Alter- native Tanker Designs," which was recently released by Herbert Engi- neering Corp. under contract to the

USCG.

Pyramid calculated that the mean outflow for a 272,000-dwt mid-deck tanker would be about 12,600 bar- rels, about 1.4 percent of the total capacity of the tanks.

According to the report, "The Mid- deck tanker—as a proposed design competing with the double hull— should not be considered equiva- lent" to the double-hull, because substantial amounts of oil could be spilled in 75 to 80 percent of all grounding incidents in which a double-hull tanker would lose none.

The report did note that by combin- ing the two designs into a single ship—a double-hull tanker with a mid-deck bulkhead—could be "very useful" in preventing or reducing the magnitude of oil spills.

For further information on the report, contact: Arthur McKenzie,

Tanker Advisory Center, Inc., 217

East 85th St., Suite 259, New York,

N.Y. 10028; Tel: (212) 628-7686; Fax: (212) 744-2703.

ASTM Group To Develop

Tanker Escort Criteria

Based on a Coast Guard (CG) re- quest, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) will establish a task group to develop and publish na- tional consensus guidelines on selection criteria for escorting tank vessels.

Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), the CG is required to estab- lish a regulation requiring tug escorts for oil tankers over 5,000 gt on Puget

Sound, Washington, and Prince Wil- liam Sound, Alaska, and to consider other areas of the country where a tanker escort may be beneficial.

The ASTM guidelines will be used to complement the Coast Guard's regula- tory requirements for tug escorts and to assist companies in making the selec- tion of suitable tugs. The ASTM task group will be provided with a draft of proposed CG suitability criteria as a baseline for discussion.

Some of the organizations ap-

January, 1993 pointed by ASTM to serve on the task group are: the American Waterways

Operators; Crowley Maritime Corp.;

Turecamo Maritime; Foss Maritime; and Texaco Marine Services. Seats have also been provided for: the

American Institute ofMerchant Ship- ping, the American Pilots Associa- tion; the CG; state officials; academ- ics; and classification societies.

The group is scheduled to provide the CG with a final proposal for re- view by June 1993.

WSF Names Robert Jones

Vessel Engineering Head

Washington State Ferries (WSF) recently announced the appointment of Robert 'Bob' Jones as manager of vessel engineering.

Mr. Jones, formerly vice-presi- dent of marketingfor Cherokee Data

Systems in Boulder, Colo., will be responsible for both new ferry con- struction and the renovation of ex- isting ferries.

A graduate of the U. S. Naval Acad- emy, Mr. Jones spent over 24 years in the Navy and served in a variety of positions including the commanding officer of two destroyers.

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