The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

ENVIRONMENT and Housing Minister, Kenred Dorsett, said yesterday that the Government was committed to introducing regulations that would govern the currently unregulated ‘downstream’ petroleum sector.

Speaking to Tribune Business outside the House of Assembly yesterday Mr Dorsett said: “At the time we tabled the legislation dealing with the upstream petroleum industry, I made mention that we had spoken with the Commonwealth Secretariat about assisting us with the downstream industry, which is our petroleum dealers.

“As it stands, while you have the Ministry of Works and their volatile substance section and Department of Environmental Health Services and the BEST Commission which advises the Ministry of Environment. There are no regulations governing that sector and I think that that ought to be done. That is one of the things that we are going to do.”

Mr Dorsett also assured that all of the recommendations contained in a Black and Veatch International report in reference to the 2012 underground fuel leak at Rubis’ Robinson Road gas station had been directed to Rubis.

“I think some of the press releases read as though the recommendations haven’t in fact been put in train. The document has been released but the recommendations suggested by the report, all of it the five-year monitoring, all of it has already been written to Rubis and put in stone in terms of what we require them to do,” said Mr Dorsett.

Rubis, in a statement on Tuesday, said that it had taken all of the “necessary and possible actions” to remediate the impacted areas and to avoid any risk to the neighbours.

Rubis, whose subsidiary Vitogaz bought Chevron’s fuels marketing and aviation business last May, controls some 20 fuel stations in the Bahamas.

“Remediation activities at the site have been conducted for more than two years and have been very effective in reducing the levels of hydrocarbons present in the soil and in the water,” the Rubis statement said.

“Recent samples taken from the soil and the water table in areas impacted by the spill have confirmed that there are no free hydrocarbons present in the soil and that the levels of hydrocarbons present in the water table have declined. All of the recommendations made by the Government of The Bahamas have been incorporated into the Remediation Action Plan. We are in constant communication with the Government of The Bahamas on all issues pertaining to the Robinson Road incident.”

According to the BEST Commission, the fuel release was observed in late December 2012 by operator Fiorente Management, and reported to Rubis on January 19, 2013.

It was previously reported that the gasoline leak was estimated to be around 30,000 gallons; however, BESTCommission Director Philip Weech said recently that variance records approximated the release of 12,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline.

Black and Veatch was contracted by the government in 2013 to ensure that the actions taken by station owner Rubis Bahamas to address the release were appropriate to protect public health and adequately remediate the environment. The report was completed on February 20, 2014 and only recently released.

The report confirmed that elevated levels of benzene, a cancer-causing compound in gasoline, was found in a residential well in May 2013, but ultimately concluded that assessments conducted by Rubis were insufficient and could not be used to determine whether residential and commercial building occupants were exposed to contamination associated with the fuel release.

The cancer-causing compound was also found in air samples taken by Cable Bahamas’ contractor in early 2013, according to the report.