By Robert Hart, Staff Reporter
Members of an oil spill clean-up team working at Port Esquivel, near Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine, yesterday. The clean-up team was formed as a response to an oil spill that occurred at the port on Saturday afternoon. - Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
THE AUTHORITIES are yet to determine the cause of an oil spill on Saturday at Port Esquivel, near to Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine.
However, the clean-up was expected to be concluded late yesterday evening after the intervention of representatives of Petrojam, the state-owned oil refinery.
"We have no facts to substantiate that at the moment. There are some allegations but it has not yet been determined," said Alexander Reid, production supervisor at Petrojam and leader of the team conducting clean-up operations. He was responding to suggestions that the spill occurred when a ship entering the port dropped anchor, damaging the pipeline to the Doctor Bird power barge.
Mr. Reid said that Petrojam was contacted by representatives of West Indies Alumina Company (WINDALCO) and Jamaica Energy Partners, both of which have offices at the port. A response team was assembled and the Jamaica Defence Force conducted an aerial reconnaissance flight and sent a boat and equipment to the scene to assist with the clean-up.
"Because of visibility there was not much we could do last night (Saturday)," he explained. He said the team had been able to complete 70 per cent of the marine clean-up by yesterday afternoon. He said that two ships in the harbour also required cleaning as they were covered with oil slicks.
"One of the ships is leaving here for a port in Canada. They have stringent rules about oil slicks on vessels," Mr. Reid said. The vessel could be impounded and its owners fined heavily if it was not cleaned before reaching North America, he said.
Once the marine clean-up is completed, however, there would still be a need to assess possible additional damage to the environment caused by the spill.
Omar Afflick, regional co-ordinator for the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), told the media that it was too early to determine the level of damage.
"NEPA (National Environment and Protection Agency) will have to give us advice on that," he said. "The coastline has shown signs of oil slick or contamination. A comprehensive evaluation of the level of damage that was done to the coastline would have to be given by NEPA from their technical environmentalists. Other than that, there is no extensive damage to the coastline."
Two weeks ago, Diana McCaulay, chief executive officer of the Jamaica Environment Trust, expressed her organisation's concern at recent oil spills in Jamaica. She raised the concern following an oil spill at the Marine Park in Montego Bay.
In a letter to The Gleaner, Mrs. McCaulay criticised officials from NEPA for not issuing "an Enforcement Order on the Port Authority of Jamaica from whose operations the leak originated".
"Oil spills are extremely harmful to the marine environment in both the short and the long terms," she said.
The Marine Park oil spill caused a major scare for security, port and environmental officials. It was blamed on an abandoned pipeline which officials said leaks oil into the harbour from time to time.
