Equinor’s South Riding Point facility in East Grand Bahama.
By DENISE MAYCOCK
Tribune Freeport Reporter
dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
EQUINOR has 100 people in the field helping in the clear up of the massive oil spill at its refinery in East Grand Bahama.
Eskil Eriksen, public information officer at Equinor, says 50,000 barrels of oil and water have been recovered at the site “from day one to now”.
“We have come quite far in the recovery work, but there is still lots more work to do,” he told The Tribune. “We are not finished yet and we are prepared to work…until it is finished.”
Equinor says the recovered oil is “safely being contained in compliance with best practices.”
Mr Eriksen said clean-up crews are now entering the impacted forest area to the north to manually collect debris, branches and sediments with oil.
The area from the terminal to the edge of the forest where oil was observed comprises some 3.6 miles of forest area, he reported.
Response experts have conducted walk throughs in the forest and have categorised different sections according to the amount of oil found in different areas.
“We will cut off leaves and branches and bring them out physically; we will have 100 people in the woods working with this,” Mr Eriksen said.
A Wildlife Unit has also been brought in, he said. “Fortunately, there has been very little wildlife impacted due to birds and animals leaving when hurricanes are coming. So, we have little wildlife impacted, and now we see the risk of wildlife is going down because the oil is drying up and we have collected the biggest amounts (of oil) so we don’t see a high risk of wildlife challenges going forward.”
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 1 month ago
Repost:
Our corrupt Minnis-led FNM government has wrongfully allowed Statoil/Equinor to oversee the determination of the cause and extent of the oil spill, and the resulting damage to the environment. This absurd situation is the equivalent of wrongfully allowing someone accused of murder to determine the cause and extent of their involvement in the murder, and the resulting charges that should be brought against them in the circumstances.
An independent physical inventorying should have been done in the immediate aftermath of Dorian to determine the exact total quantity of oil still securely stored at Statoil/Equinor facility as adjusted for the effects of water contamination and evaporation. Also, Statoil/Equinor's inventory records should have been fully secured and subjected to an independent audit/verification examination to determine the exact total quantity of oil stored at the facility immediately before it was impacted by Hurricane Dorian.
The difference between the independently audited/verified pre-Dorian total quantity of oil stored at the facility and the independently inventoried post-Dorian total quantity of oil remaining securely stored at the facility should be regarded as the total quanity of oil that was spilled into the environment.
WHERE IS THE SCIENTIFIC REPORT DETAILING THE INDEPENDENT AUDIT/VERIFICATION PROCEDURES APPLIED IN DETERMINING THE ACTUAL TOTAL QUANTITY OF OIL SPILLED INTO THE ENVIRONMENT?
WHY IS OUR GOVERNMENT WILLING TO ACCEPT REPORTS FROM EXPERTS HIRED BY STATOIL/EQUINOR AS OPPOSED TO GOVERNMENT DIRECTLY ENGAGING ITS OWN INDEPENDENT EXPERTS TO DETERMINE THE TRUE QUANTITY OF OIL SPILLED AND THE FULL EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE CAUSED TO THE ENVIRONMENT?
ARE MINNIS AND TURNQUEST BEING PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH BY NOT PONYING UP THE FUNDS NECESSARY TO DIRECTLY ENGAGE SUITABLY QUALIFIED FOREIGN EXPERTS TO PREPARE THE INDEPENDENT SCIENTIFIC REPORT WARRANTED BY THE MAGNITUDE OF THIS DISASTER?
WHY ARE MINNIS AND TURNQUEST SO DEAF TO THE LOUD OUTCRYING DEMANDS OF THE VOTERS FOR SUCH AN INDEPENDENT SCIENTIFIC REPORT SCIENTIFIC TO BE PREPARED AND MADE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC?
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