The lack of disposal facilities for out-of-date flares is causing a dangerous stockpile of pyrotechnics by yachtsmen, and the problem is compounded by the failure of a Department of the Marine scheme designed to deal with the problem. Garda stations have in the past been a place where many yachtsmen go for the disposal of a potentially dangerous safety device.
The RNLI and the coastguard recommend that all boats on Irish waters carry a variety of flares. If the safe boating message they promote each season is filtering through to sailors, an estimated 10-15,000 boats around the coast will be carrying a pack of up to 10 flares afloat.
Flares are the recommended means of attracting attention for a boat in distress. These are rockets capable of reaching hundreds of feet in height in a matter of seconds. Ironically the safety message to buy flares is creating a danger ashore as there is no safe means of disposing them in the State.
The Irish Sailing Association (ISA) is often asked by sailors how they should deal with these flares. It is a question for which there appears no answer. The ISA are aware that the Gardai have for some time been unwilling to take Time Expired Pyrotechnics (TEPS). On Dublin Bay alone there could be up to 20,000 flares for disposal over the next few seasons.
Aware of the problem but so far unable to sort it out, the Irish Marine Safety Working Group, chaired by the Department of the Marine, put together a process 12 months ago that meant certain chandlers and boating stores would agree to take the flares as long as they were collected regularly. However, neither the Department of the Marine, Coastguard or the Army, it appears, is prepared to relieve overburdened pyro-stores at nine chandleries around the country set up under the scheme.
Instead, they cite regulations (some of which are from the EU and not even in force yet) that control the transportation of flammable goods and explosives. The Army agreed to collect TEPs from chandlers in June of 1999. Details of the process, including the list of chandlers, was published in Marine Notice 13 of 2000, issued May 8th, 2000.
"Shortly after the scheme was introduced, the Army then apparently realised that they needed to comply with the requirements detailed in Statutory Instrument 450/94 which defines conditions for the carriage of explosives," the ISA's training and development officer Tony Wright told The Irish Times.
The Army are said to have asked the Department of Justice for exemption from these requirements which was never forthcoming, according to Wright. "It has also been pointed out that new regulations covering the carriage of dangerous goods were expected to come into effect in April 2001. A derogation from these regulations is now needed as well," Wright says.
Since June 1999 there has been no progress made and in the meantime stocks of TEPS are building up. In Britain, any coastguard station or mobile unit will accept TEPS. These are in turn collected by the Royal Navy Bomb disposal unit and incinerated. UK Pyrotechnic manufacturer Pains Wessex also collect TEPS from chandlers and dispose of them in their own facility.
