The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

SAVE the Bays chairman Joseph Darville accused the government of putting the Equinor oil spill on the "back burner," claiming he has witnessed a "very minor amount" of clean up done in the forest near the South Riding Point site.

He claimed "tons and tons" of old steel and machinery was dug up this past Monday during "some excavation done by another entity" that owns land in the area and had an aggregate company on the site. It is not known who dumped the machinery and buried it.

Mr Darville said he found the discovery "really disturbing" and questioned if "the powers that be" were aware of the waste, as it was sitting on the water table, which is only two feet below the surface.

"Just about maybe 100 ft from that area there are wells that were dug by the entity who had the aggregate company out there," the environmentalist said.

"I was able to you know, by hand, move the soil from the top of that one well, drop a little stone in there and you can hear it plop within one second - that's how close the water table is to the surface. . .

"And that's the reason why I'm adamant that we cannot allow Equinor or any other foreign company to be there all by themselves in that very delicate area which is connected to our water table and also the poisonous aspects that come from and who knows what was in those pieces of machines that was junked and stuff.

"Why in God's name did they find it so convenient to dig a hole and bury them into our land? I mean that is something that is so reprehensible, it is wrong, it is criminal for them to do such a thing."

Mr Darville clarified that he was not blaming Equinor for the dumping, but said it is a matter "that has to be examined very, very closely".

He claimed "some cleaning up" commenced three weeks ago in the area with a team of about 10 or 12 Bahamians, but he did not see foreign workers.

"A certain degree" of clean-up, he claimed, was done on the roadside "a little bit beyond" what was excavated in the beginning where most of the oil had been settling. However, he alleged to have seen "absolutely no activity" in the clean-up in the forest when he returned recently.

"Now that to me is extremely disturbing," he admitted. "I don't know whether or not it was too cold. It was kinda a little bit chilly but I mean their complaint, originally, was the fact that the weather was too hot for them to be there and they were only able to work for about 30 minutes and then they had to take a 30 minute break, but on Monday, the day before yesterday, when I was there it was rather cool."

The Save the Bays chairman said there should be some consistent regular presence of government officials on the site to monitor the clean-up as Equinor is "policing themselves".

The clean-up was estimated by the company to take six months. Although Mr Darville understands that is an enormous task, he said the longer it takes for the company to clean up the oil, the more harm it will cost the environment.

Last October, Equinor said it is committed to cleaning up after the incident. At the time, the company said more than 350 responders from 14 nations - including more than 100 responders from the Bahamas - were working on the recovery operations.

"The clean-up operations have expanded to the forest areas north-east of the terminal," Equinor said in October. "Specially trained teams have started the clean-up work in the most impacted part of the forest, supported by the Shoreline Clean-up and Assessment Technique (SCAT) team and safety experts. Equinor's plan is to have four teams consisting of around 100 persons involved in the forest clean up.

". . . Equinor has also started execution of a ground water monitoring plan of the impacted area with approval from the Bahamian government. Final planning of well placements based on plume extension and hydrological understanding is ongoing. Suppliers and equipment for drilling the wells are currently being mobilised."

Equinor has said it will establish a long-term monitoring plan of ground water and for the affected forest areas to be submitted to local authorities.

It is estimated that the volume of the oil spill is 55,000 barrels (2.3 million gallons). The spill occurred when roofs were blown off Equinor's storage tanks as Hurricane Dorian pounded Grand Bahama in early September 2019.