Oil spill response on the Kiel Canal | HÖPPNER | Environment, Protection and Consulting

Höppner Management & Consultant was responsible for coordinating the response teams and cleaning the affected areas and ships after the oil spill at the Ostermoor oil port, as well as supervising the disposal of the waste.

A serious oil spill caused the Kiel Canal (NOK), the world's busiest artificial waterway, to be closed for two weeks. The NOK has been open to shipping traffic again since January 3. Well over 300,000 liters of crude oil spilled at the Ostermoor oil port due to a pipeline leak. According to Schleswig-Holstein's Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt, the situation is the "biggest oil spill in over 20 years", which posed a "highly toxic danger" to humans and animals.

Under the leadership of the Havariekommando, the joint institution of the federal government and the five coastal states to ensure coordinated and joint accident management in the event of accidents in the North and Baltic Seas, Höppner Management & Consultant, a consultancy firm for occupational safety, environmental protection and management systems, worked with its partner company Trade Waste International to clean the contaminated areas and supervise the disposal of the waste and cleaning water. The environmental and accident management experts removed the oil residues from the open water surfaces and freed the affected shore areas, annexes, port facilities, watercraft and the lock area from oil contamination. The company was deployed with around 35 people and was also responsible for the coordination and administration of the damage control.

"During the clean-up, it was particularly important to be able to react quickly and coordinate the people and materials involved. We worked in many places at the same time to enable ships contaminated by the spill to cast off and to reopen port areas to shipping traffic," says Michael Wentler, Managing Director of Höppner Management & Consultant and in charge of the clean-up. This also included soil probing at the spill site. Fortunately, no oil got into the groundwater, emphasizes Michael Wentler.

The consultancy unit, which has been active on the market for 25 years, has extensive experience in dealing with oil spills and other maritime incidents and works regularly with the Central Command for Maritime Emergencies. One of Höppner Management & Consultant's flagship projects in recent years was its involvement in the specific disposal and further treatment of overseas containers with highly toxic chemicals following the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in summer 2020. "Accidents are always terrible events. However, the situation in the port of Beirut has surpassed anything we have ever seen in terms of consequential damage and errors in the storage of hazardous substances and dangerous goods. The professional and appropriate salvage, treatment and disposal of hazardous substances after accidents is one of our areas of expertise. We have done everything we can to initiate the professional disposal of all hazardous substances and chemicals in the port and thus make our contribution to restoring normality for the local population," says Michael Wentler.