The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A PINDER's Point resident doing some underground drilling in his yard made a smelly discovery after reaching the fresh water table - rising out of the ground was cloudy water with a pungent odour.

The drilling exercise was conducted by Lowell Pinder and the Grand Bahama Environmental Association, which documented the incident last Thursday.

This is the second such reported incident in less than a month by residents in that area. On March 8, Pastor Michael Pinder also reported that while drilling a soakaway - a pit for waste water - black water had surfaced in his yard.

Shuffel Hepburn, an executive of GBEA, claimed this could prove what residents had feared all along - possible contamination of their freshwater lens.

However, The Tribune contacted the Department of Environmental Health Services on Wednesday and spoke with Public Analyst Anthony Ryan about concerns over possible water contamination in Pinder's Point.

Test

Mr Ryan said that assumptions could not be made by just looking at the colour of the water. He said that residents should have contacted the department immediately to report the incident so that someone could come out at the site and test the liquid.

Meanwhile Mr Hepburn claimed it has been rumoured for years that oil is underground in Pinder's Point and the western side of Lewis Yard. He fears the murky substance residents claim they found has spread beyond the borders of a nearby plant and has affected the fresh water table in the community.

Lowell Pinder lives just south of the Buckeye, formerly BORCO, plant.

While drilling last Thursday morning, Mr Hepburn said that no clean, clear water surfaced after reaching the water table.

"Only cloudy and cream-coloured water surfaced," he said. "The water became very smelly as the drilling progressed, with an unmistakable oily scent."

Last month, Pastor Pinder contacted the GBEA after he claimed he observed black water surfacing in his yard while drilling a soakaway.

Mr Hepburn said last Thursday's drilling exercise was undertaken because of the earlier incident.

Mr Hepburn claimed in that incident, "the black oily water was coming up for as long as an half hour or more, with globs of thick oil in the water."

"Residents believe the oil is mixed with other chemicals from other nearby plants as well and fear this may be the cause of the cloudy, smelly water. Residents are very concerned and need a remedy for this problem," he said.

The government official The Tribune spoke with said in cases like this, there is a remedy once a breach is proven.

"We have to be there to qualify and quantify whether there is a problem and once we can confirm the problem, the next step is to look at some of the nearby entities to determine who is responsible," Mr Ryan explained.

He said that there is a polluter-pay policy where if an entity is found to be responsible after a lengthy investigation process, it will have to pay for the clean-up.

Mr Ryan, who is a public analyst from New Providence, travels back and forth between Nassau and Grand Bahama as there is no permanent staff in Freeport.

He said that water and air testing is conducted in Grand Bahama.

But Mr Hepburn claims residents did not contact DEHS about the drilling in Pinder's Point because they have never got any satisfactory response from officials in the past concerning other complaints regarding alleged raw sewage spills in the Chesapeake Subdivision.

"So why should we bother? The residents of Pinder's Point have been receiving rusty and cloudy water for quite some time in those communities, and there has been no attention given to their complaint," he claimed.

The GBEA has been agitating for the relocation of residents from Pinder's Point, Lewis Yard, Seaco Town, Hunters, Mack Town, and Hawksbill communities, which are in close proximity to the industrial plants. The communities have also been plagued with chemical emissions for many years, which resulted in the relocation of three schools in the past three decades.

Opponent

Mr Hepburn, a staunch opponent of the proposed $5.5 billion Oban oil refinery project in East Grand Bahama, believes that such a development could threaten the entire island's remaining freshwater lens.

During a recent town meeting in East End organised by Oban President Satpal Dhunna, Mr Hepburn said that the Pinder's Point community had been severely affected by the former BORCO oil refinery, saying that fish and marine life have significantly declined in the area.

"Refineries come packing heavy blows to the environment," he warned East End residents. Mr Hepburn said that Pinder's Point residents should be relocated and that the Oban project should go in the industrial park where there is already environmental damage, and not in East End where there is none.

Mr Dhunna said the company looked at the Grand Bahama Industrial Park in Freeport, but it did not have the available space needed for its proposed oil refinery project.

Over 600 acres of undeveloped, pristine Crown land in East Grand Bahama has been identified for the project on a lease basis.