The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

An environmental activist yesterday said it was vital those responsible for last week’s Exuma oil spill pay the full clean-up cost and “meaningful penalties” to deter further pollution-related negligence.

Casuarina McKinney-Lambert, executive director of the Bahamas Reef Environmental Educational Foundation (BREEF), said: “It’s important that the polluter pays, both for the cost of clean-up and restoration, and meaningful penalties for allowing this sort of damage to occur.

“It’s important that all facilities that transfer or use fuels have adequate clean-up equipment on site. It was fortunate that in this instance much of the diesel was contained in one bay, and the booms appear to have been deployed rapidly after the spill. However we are concerned that there apparently were dispersant chemicals used that actually make the spill more toxic.

“This needs to be a wake-up call to ensure that the spill response plans are in place for larger spills. The first few hours are critical as oil can travel large distances and cause damage far from the source of the spill and, in some cases, for decades afterwards. The Bahamas also has a tremendous opportunity to shift away from generating electricity through fossil fuels and make the transition to renewable energy.”

Some 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel were lost into the ocean after a hose ruptured when MT Arabian, a vessel owned by D&T Shipping, a Sun Oil/FOCOL Holdings contractor, was offloading its cargo to Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) storage facility. No findings have yet been made as to who is liable, who is paying for the clean-up costs, whether there was proper insurance in place, and if any of those involved will penalties/fines imposed on them.

Roston McGreggor, owner/operator of Valiant Marine Salvage, one of the companies involved in the clean-up, told Tribune Business he believes the remediation is complete. He has not returned to the site near the Old Navy Base since Friday after sucking most of the diesel fuel out of the water.

Mr McGreggor said: “It took that long to get rid of the first 95 percent of the oil and then, after that, you just get back to the point of diminishing returns. So that’s why we brought in the vacuum truck which was most effective at that point, because we just had a little bit to slurp up off of the surface in the corners and putting down additional oil rags.

“A company from Freeport came to do that kind of stuff. I got rid of the bulk of it, basically with what I was able to get to with my skimmers and the pumps, and then everything else was just more tedious.” There are still challenges, though, with diesel “leaching out of the sand”, and there is no indication how long this will continue with the falling and rising tide cycle.

Mr McGreggor added: “Pumping is gruelling work. Using the pumps that we had and the equipment that we had, it was it was very gruelling and it took a lot of concentration and just physical stamina to be skimming the way that we were, so it was just gruelling.”

This is the largest remediation exercise Valiant Marine has ever been involved in. “There were other people that were trying to help and were involved as well, but it takes a really steady hand and a lot of concentration. There were times I hit a wall and I had to drink some water and psyche myself up and get back to work. It was just physical and emotional exhaustion, but you just have to keep at it,” Mr McGreggor said.