The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

MARATHON residents yesterday said they were still no closer to learning critical details of their level of exposure to harmful chemicals from the 2012 gasoline leak at a nearby service station.

Residents also refuted statements by Environment Minister Kenred Dorset, who in October indicated that there was continuing communication between Rubis Bahamas, Cable Bahamas and “all of the residents” over the underground spill at the service station at Robinson and Old Trail Roads.

In an email sent to The Tribune, Lillian Russell, whose home is located opposite the fuel station on Old Trail Road, wrote: “My dear minister of the environment and former neighbour, please do not run your bull on the citizens of this Bahamas. My unanswered emails alone seriously dispute all that this article quotes you as saying.

“You are now using the fact that there is ongoing litigation as the fact that the consultant’s report is not being released. You know full well that litigation has just only started in the last two months,” the email read. “I have been asking for it long before this time.”

In October, Mr Dorsett explained that the independent report prepared by consultants Black and Veatch – on the reported 30,000-gallons of gasoline that leaked from underground storage tanks and allegedly contaminated groundwater in the surrounding area – will have to receive clearance from the Attorney General’s Office before findings are released.

He said this is due to the ongoing civil litigation between Rubis Bahamas and Cable Bahamas. At that time, more than seven months had passed since a comprehensive statement on the leak was promised and Mr Dorsett said the government was considering a town meeting to address “any unnecessary fears”.

Yesterday, Ted Forbes said there has been no follow up from the government about the proposed town meeting.

“People around here are already hip to the politics, and if you’re not coming to bring something then don’t come – that’s our attitude,” he said.

“Don’t bring words, that isn’t going to work. If they are going to do this town meeting the only thing people are going to go there to see is what’s in this for me.

“People are looking right now for relief. We see what you did for Cable Bahamas, those people are safe. We see what you did for us, we are not safe, and you’re bringing us words?”

Mr Forbes said: “You don’t have to come because we are already here and nobody’s doing anything about it. We know one thing that is certain that the concentration of contamination in the water table probably a half a mile from here is not the same as around the service station. We know that as a fact, or rather the facts we don’t have, but we have the information that we researched ourselves.”

The Ministry of Public Works responded to complaints of fuel fumes at a building near the then-Texaco station on October 2, 2012, according to documents obtained by The Tribune.

However, residents Richard and Adrianne Munroe said that an assessment was not conducted at their home off Robinson Road until they reported the presence of gasoline in their tap water on January 10, 2013.

Yesterday, Mr Forbes said: “We just started to see a lot of action going on over there (at the service station). Trucks moving and they started to do some pumping and when we started to inquire they put a fence up around the station, and then we knew it was serious.

“It wasn’t until the media did a story that a few days later Environmental Health came around as if to test the water, and then (Marathon MP) Jerome Fitzgerald came and spoke to us. Mr Fitzgerald didn’t speak to us as a group, but just moving to a few houses and that was the extent of it.”

According to documents obtained by The Tribune, the Ministry of Environment and Housing has requested that Rubis Bahamas conduct a public health assessment of the neighbouring area, and bi-annual health assessments of those individuals determined to be directly affected by the fuel release.

Residents claim they have received no information from the government about remediation plans for the area, or the results of initial tests conducted to determine their level of exposure.

Mr Forbes said: “We still don’t know exactly what we’re up against and as far what we did on our own, we studied the information online, as much as we could put together on our own, and realised how serious that information was compared to what we were going through.

“It’s hard to compare it but after we saw that they were willing to move Cable Bahamas we realised that it was more serious. We were living through the direct effects of heavy doses of fumes, heavy enough that you could feel the burning in your nose or your chest, that’s how heavy it was. They kept saying to us that this side (of the road) is safe, it’s good and no problem.”

“The thing is nobody has said anything,” he said.

Mr Forbes said he was not switched to city water until he and his neighbour discovered heavy fumes were being emitted from their wells, and brought it to the attention of the company conducting the area clean up.

Cable Bahamas is suing Rubis and former operator Fiorente Management for up to $15m in damages, alleging that their “negligence” resulted in its property, mainly its Customer Service Building, being contaminated by the 2012 gasoline leak.

It was alleged that the hazardous vapours from the leak had forced 43 staff to seek medical treatment before its customer service building was closed in January 2013, and one staff member had not fully recovered from serious health issues.

Gasoline is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons that are generally volatile, toxic and soluble in water. A group of compounds called BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylenes) can make up to 18 per cent of a standard blend.

While all the compounds are toxic, benzene is a “well-established cause of cancer in humans”, according to the World Health Organisation.

In its defence to litigation filed by Cable Bahamas, former station operator Fiorente Management and Investments Ltd charged that it “begged/beseeched” Rubis to investigate concerns of a possible leak for more than a month because the station was sustaining substantial losses.

In a past interview, Marathon residents told The Tribune that they routinely experienced the presence of fumes in their water supply from an incident that occurred in the early 1990s; however, it is still not clear whether any clean-up was conducted at that time.

Reports of historic fuel releases were also referenced in documents from the Ministry of Environment and Housing, obtained by The Tribune and which referred to isolated groundwater contamination at the southeast corner of the now-Rubis Bahamas property.

Mr Forbes said his family moved into their home at the corner of Robinson and Old Trail Roads in the mid-70s before the service station was built on the opposite side of the street. He said the overgrown lot was marked with a sign that read “Government Industrial Park”.

His family’s battle with sickness began in the 80s when his sister Daniell began to suffer from severe arthritis. Mr Forbes married and moved out of the area in the early 90s. Daniell, a teacher and chef, died in a car accident at the age of 44 in 1999. During this time, Mr Forbes’ sister Cheryl Knowles was also diagnosed with arthritis, a condition that worsened until she was wheelchair bound, and later bedridden in 2006. The previous year, Mr Forbe’s mother Annis was diagnosed with breast cancer and renal disease at an Atlanta hospital after local doctors could not pinpoint her illness. Annis died less than four years later at the age of 86. Mrs Knowles’ husband Henry, a builder, was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer in 2007 and died within a year. Both cancer diagnoses were the first in their respective families, and all persons lived at the home opposite the service station.

Mr Forbes, self-employed, returned to his family home in 2012 as a result of displacement from the New Providence Road Improvement Project.

Mrs Knowles, an Atlantis phone operator and beautician, died from illness related to her arthritis last year at the age of 58.

Speaking about his concerns following the 2012 leak, Mr Forbes said: “It really makes you stop and think about how much damage has already been done, how serious this really is. They moved Cable Bahamas for whatever reason and secured those people’s health and those people are only there for a few hours a day. We are living through this 24 hours and it’s all around us it makes you stop and think, well how affected am I or everybody else is as a result of this?

“Of course you try to see the people responsible who you think should be looking out for you, that are supposed to be securing you, but nobody responded.”