A HUGE pipeline breach has spilled 70,000 gallons of fuel in Eleuthera, the Bahamas Electricity Company revealed late last night.
The news, which comes on the heels of a significant oil spill from a cargo ship just off the coast of Freeport, had emergency clean-up teams scrambling to contain the situation.
According to an official statement, BEC has known about the leak since Tuesday, but opted to keep the matter quiet until last night.
Around 20,000 gallons of the unspecified fuel has been recovered thus far, according to the statement.
It said: “At approximately 9am on Tuesday, December 4, BEC officials became aware of a fuel spill which occurred in the area of a disused fuel storage tank farm for the Rock Sound, Eleuthera power station.
Although the storage tanks in this area, located in the vicinity of the Rock Sound airport, are not in use, active fuel pipelines supplying fuel to the Rock Sound Power Station pass through this area.
“BEC employees in Eleuthera responded immediately and the relevant authorities namely, the Ministry of the Environment, the National Oil Spill committee and the Port Department were contacted. In addition to this, teams from New Providence were dispatched to Eleuthera to assist with the assessments and recovery and to carry out an investigation into this matter.
“Our preliminary findings suggest that a check valve was tampered with and this contributed to the resulting fuel spill. From the assessments to date, BEC estimates that some 70,000 gallons of fuel may have been spilled.
“The recovery and remediation efforts have commenced and to date more than 20,000 gallons of fuel have been recovered. It should also be noted that a private firm was also engaged to assist with the recovery and remediation.
“This incident is very unfortunate, however our teams have been working around the clock and are committed to ensuring that the clean
up and remediation efforts are completed in the shortest period of time.”
Comments
TalRussell 11 years, 4 months ago
OK Comrades BEC a "government" owned utility can think that they can really get away with keeping secret the truth that 70,000 gallons of fuel leaking took place, yet still Bahamians really want to risk trusting "any" government of the day, and one in a partnership with a "foreign" corporation, whose drilling credentials are questionable, to drill for black sludge in Bahamaland's crystal clear waters and best labeled when photographed from space by NASA Astronaut Ron Garan as the most beautiful blue waters the eyes will ever experience as he scanned the space camera's lens off Andres. Long Island, Cat Island, and Eleuthera as; "a masterpiece, earth paradise and amazing?
How can the Christie administration expect not to be suspect in their dealings with BPC when not only did they issue the original licenses to BPC back when they held the instruments of power 2005-2006, but PM Christie and other PLP lawyers have "had" close connections to seeing to it that BPC remains a prominent player in oil drilling for "black sludge" in Bahamaland's waters.
I find it suspect that the only two referendums being proposed by PM Christie and his cabinet are on drilling for sludge and licensing the numbers rackets" bosses?" How come it's just these two PM?
http://thetribune.media.clients.ellin...">A sludge free view of Bahamaland's waters taken by Astronaut Ron Garan from space. by TalRussell
TalRussell 11 years, 4 months ago
You are 100% right and I work at keeping my posts balanced. Besides, don't you think the spotlight is better aimed at the PM of the day, not wasting time on the lawyer/fisherman from Cooper's Town?
My point is there is "proof" of the closeness of the PM himself and those around him who have had recent ties which has resulted in monies from providing professional services being directed toward them via their law firms/companies.
Comrade Dwag on the contrary, I await any proof the same applied to PM Hubert or those around him?
I hope you can see why I am not alone in having good reasons to be asking serious questions, as to why is it that the "only" two referendums have been placed on the PM's 'rushed" 2013 agenda, is to authorize his administration going full steam ahead with drilling for black sludge, and legalizing the criminal numbers rackets, despite the PM's refusal to acknowledge the PLP's acceptance of monies from the numbers "bosses?"
Hopefully supporters of PM Christie will not be as silent as the red shirts became accustomed to, just because they support the PM Christie and want him so succeed? Personally, i prefer to put Bahamaland ahead of party politics.
by TalRussell
B_I_D___ 11 years, 4 months ago
Be careful what you wish for people.
You voted these clowns back into office.
So just recently you have the NIB debacle...which happens to follow the attempted friendship payoff as well with using NIB funds to bail out Poor Baby Tiger...notice how quiet THAT subject has become...maybe someone at the Tribune needs to dig a bit deeper and see if that deal went through or not...maybe I missed it, but it suddenly went very very quiet.
BEC suddenly losing millions of dollars.
Silence and disinformation regarding two separate oil/fuel spills.
...and don't even get me started about paying off the political favours from the numbers crew with the gambling referendum screw up.
concernedcitizen 11 years, 4 months ago
now its come out it was theifen that cuased the spill ,,apparently some one was siphoning off 20,000 gallons of every shipment ,,are you telling me other people didn,t know ,,who did the theif sell it to, just like the overtime ,,WE CAN NOT KEEP STEALING AND THEN COMPLAINING ABOUT THE HIGH COST OF THINGS ,,THEFT MAKES PRICES GO UP PLAIN AND SIMPLE .....Tals you know why there are votes on numbers and oil drilling ,they are already paid for ,and even if the people vote no on both the PLP will still say the vote was yes ,and if we call for an audit of the vote it will be Gomez that does the audit ..
Abaco_property_owner 11 years, 4 months ago
I can't believe that 70,000 gallons of fuel were released into the environment, and we don't hear about it for several days.....and when we do hear about it, the details are scant. I'd like to know if the spill was on land or in the water, what remedial efforts (specifically) are being used to manage this release, and what resources are being called on to ensure that this release is contained and then remediated, or cleaned-up.
Also, if BEC is saying 70,000 gallons were released, my experience with environmental disasters would dictate that the truth is probably 2x that figure; certainly 100,000 gallons are not out of the question.
Based on the "out of sight - out of mind" mentality that the Bahamian government officials seem to have adopted for the recent oil spill offshore Freeport.......can we expect a similar response once this pipeline leak soaks into the ground? Let's see, 100,000 gallons introduced into a fresh water aquifer on a karst (limestone) island......that's enough benzene and other carcinogens to pollute billions of gallons of fresh water, and with the speed that water moves through these islands, it should be just a matter of days before the spill is spread for miles around. What plans are in place to control this?
BEC should be more transparent with these issues and they should be holding press conferences or sending out tweets to keep people informed......something.....anything, please!
I'm not big on lawsuits, but it seems that hitting these guys in the pocketbook is often the only way to get their attention. Perhaps a class action suit against BEC would send a message that they need to be more careful with our precious water resources.
Frustrated in Abaco!
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ciaociao 10 years ago
One of the first thing they said is that 20.000 gallons of fuel has been recovered. Don't they understand how is that harming the underwater animals? I dive with my son every summer. I fixed the old boat cause I found http://www.mmimarine.com/mmi/index.ph...">discount marine parts, but I don't want to expose my son to this kind of risks.
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