Marine Monitoring Contract Extended

Fugro GEOS has won an extension to its real-time oceanographic monitoring programme for Huntsman Tioxide that is helping to improve the local marine environment off the coast of South Africa. Huntsman Tioxide South Africa owns and operates a marine effluent pipeline at Umbogintwini, just south of Durban in KwaZulu Natal. To gather information about it, Fugro GEOS installed a real-time system in June 2003 on a one-year trial basis. The system comprised an Aanderaa CMB 4280 Data Buoy and four Doppler Current Sensors (DCS) measuring current speed, current direction and water temperature at 10m intervals through the water column. The buoy is serviced every two months to allow for removal of any fouling and a complete spare buoy system is on hand to give minimum disruption in case of instrument failure. Data is transmitted via VHF radio link to an onshore receiving station at the pump house, allowing conditions at the end of the pipeline to be monitored 24-hours a day in real-time. This data is used for fine-tuning the computer model that sets threshold limits for effluent discharge rates. Preliminary results have been good, leading Huntsman to renew the contract for a further year.