The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Freeport-based processor of ships’ liquid waste is planning to invest $15m in constructing a plant capable of treating 150,000 metric tonnes per year, it has been revealed.

Clean Marine Group, which was selected by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as one of the five Caribbean winners of its Blue Tech Challenge, says its long-awaited project will create 19 full and part-time posts as well as around 20 jobs in the construction phase.

The details were disclosed in a series of environmental impact and management documents prepared for Clean Marine Group ahead of a virtual public consultation on October 14, as mandated by the Environmental Planning and Protection Act.

The developer said the facility, which is to be constructed on a four-plus acre site on the western side of Freeport Harbour, will be “the first of its kind in The Bahamas” and enable this nation to comply with its international obligations to operate a port reception asset capable of dealing with ships’ oils and other forms of waste.

“The Clean Marine Group reception and treatment facility will be an estimated $15m capital investment in Freeport in support of the maritime industry, local companies and the community,” the documents said.

“The plant will be operated by trained Bahamians and specialist contractors as required. The plant is expected to employ five or six operators, laboratory staff, environmental and health and safety supervisors, truck drivers, tanker crew, administration and management staff totaling up to 19 full-time and part-time employees (excluding temporary construction workers) and will create indirect jobs both during and post the construction phase.”

Turning to the project’s purpose, Clean Marine Group’s consultants said: “The Clean Marine Group facility will be a support service for handling and treating oily water and used oil. Clean Marine Group will provide aid to other local companies in the safe and responsible handling and treatment of liquid waste streams.

“Currently, the collection, storage and disposal of used oil are a challenge in the Bahamas and Grand Bahama. The Clean Marine Group facility can aid in addressing this issue but much effort in the way of public education and oversight by local environmental regulators, including the drafting of environmental by-laws, will be required within the GBPA (Grand Bahama Port Authority) jurisdiction.

“The maximum treatment capacity of the plant will be 20,000 litres per hour (5,283 gallons per hour) and the facility will be capable of operating 24 hours per day, seven days per week, equating to a maximum 150,000 metric tonnes (39.626m gallons) of waste processing capacity per annum,” the consultants added. 

“There will be two treatment trains with equal capacity. Most elements of the processing plant will be constructed off-site by the selected vendor and shipped to the site in modules that will be located and fixed in place. The tank storage facility, civil works and interconnecting pipework will be constructed locally under the guidance of Clean Marine Group using local contractors where possible.”

Clean Marine Group, according to Tribune Business’ files, had hoped to release all details of its project in early 2019. However, its just-released environmental documents said: “The facility is being engineered, procured, constructed and operated under the terms of a current Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Clean Marine Group and the Cleansing Service Group (CSG) of the UK.

“Clean Marine Group was established in 2012 to assist the Commonwealth of The Bahamas in complying with its international obligations to operate a port reception facility under the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) MARPOL Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978, relating thereto and as further amended by the Protocol of 1997 (MARPOL).

“This will be Clean Marine Group’s first such facility, but one of many built and operated globally. The principal aim of the facility will be to collect and process liquid waste, typically generated by the normal operation of ships. The wastes will be comprised initially of mainly waste oils and oily water mixtures, off-specification fuels, bilge water and, in the case of oil tankers, crude oil tank washings.

“The facility will later look to expand taking other types of liquid waste under the terms of the International Maritime Organisation’s MARPOL Convention, and from the islands (Bahamas) generally, as and when circumstances will allow.”

The IDB, in an earlier project report, said Clean Marine Group’s technology will break down oil and water emulsions, plus process contaminated water from ocean liners and cruise ships. “With a capacity to process in excess of 50m gallons of waste from cruise ships and other commercial vessels every year, the facility will now be expanded to receive up to 200m gallons per annum,” the IDB said.

Clean Marine Group was selected for IDB financing as one of five winners of the its Blue-Tech Challenge, which was launched in September 2018 and closed on November 30 that year. It aimed to identify businesses that apply new technologies or solutions to facilitate the long-term sustainability of the ocean economy across the Caribbean.

“Despite The Bahamas and most neighbouring countries of the wider-Caribbean gaining access to MARPOL, the extremely high cost and complexity of building and operating a port reception facility to process liquid marine waste streams means that there are no adequate facilities throughout the wider- Caribbean, and so ships find it difficult to comply with the MARPOL regulations,” the IDB paper said.

“While there are no concrete data on the volumes of marine wastes discharged into the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, one global study indicates that during the last decade illegal dumping and routine operations of vessels account for between 666,000 and 2.5m tons of hydrocarbons per year being improperly discharged from vessels into the ocean.

“The risk of discharge into the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea of pollutants, such as oil, noxious substances, sewage and garbage resulting from the normal operations of ships, poses a serious risk to the marine ecosystem and human health. Therefore, this has a significant impact on local populations that often rely on marine resources for their livelihoods.”

The IDB added that due to “limited knowledge” among Caribbean governments over enforcing MARPOL, “the risk of discharge into the region’s seas of oil, noxious liquid substances, sewage and garbage resulting from the normal operation of ships poses a serious risk to the ocean eco-system and human health”.