The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Deputy Prime Minister yesterday suggested that the Government will allocate more than $20 million to tackle the Bahamas Electricity Corporation’s (BEC) legacy pollution if necessary.

Philip Davis previously told the House of Assembly that a maximum $20 million would be set aside from the proposed $600 million Rate Reduction Bond (RRB) offering designed to refinance BEC’s existing debt and liabilities.

Environmentalists, though, have argued that this sum is insufficient to deal with all BEC’s environmental liabilities, some of which are decades old and spread across numerous Bahamian islands.

Mr Davis acknowledged this in his address to the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) second annual energy security forum yesterday, saying: “There is the view that $20 million may not be sufficient. If it is, it doesn’t mean that we will stop there.

“There is $20 million that is being set aside by BEC. The Government still has the responsibility to ensure that the remediation takes place. It is a 40 year-old challenge that’s out there. We are addressing it aggressively.”

Mr Davis said he had been advised by BEC that, over the past several months, it has been extracting 26,000 gallons of spilled oil weekly from the ground at Clifton Pier.

That fuel, he added, is being stored in a bid to recycle it. “That goes into the final stage of the whole remediation exercise,” said Mr Davis.

“We have identified the kind of containment booms necessary. The remediation has to take place. There are three phases. I have directed that immediately we have to stop the leaks.

“That’s is happening as we speak. We have stopped the leak and put in the proper booms. The second phase is to identify the extent of the problems. We know that oil is leaking out into the sea. No one truly understands the extent of the problem. It’s a 40 year-old problem.”

Mr Davis said the Government has hired a company from Philadelphia to identity the extent of the problem, in terms of how much oil has seeped into the ground and what can be extracted.

“Once we understand the extent of the problem and find a solution, it will be crafted. Right now we are stopping any seepage beyond the booms,” he added.