The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ONLY a goat and three birds were negatively impacted by the recent oil spill in Grand Bahama, Environment Minister Romauld Ferreira said yesterday.

Officials do not know how much oil spilled when Hurricane Dorian blew the tops off Equinor’s storage tanks, but the minister said 6,000 barrels – or 252,000 gallons of crude oil – have already been recovered, some of which can be reused once processed.

Environmentalists attacked Equinor for not better securing its oil terminal, fearing the spill could cause serious damage if seeped into groundwater and the sea.

Mr Ferreira sought to temper such fears when he spoke to reporters before Cabinet yesterday.

“So far, (Equinor) did extensive aerial reconnaissance along the entire western seaboard of Abaco and of course Grand Bahama, they saw two areas of interest but they turned out to be seaweed,” he said. “They used visual and infrared technology to do their scopes. On land, we can confirm that one goat and three birds were impacted by the spill.”

The company has said it observed no oil spillage into the sea.

The terminal stored about 1.9 million barrels of crude oil, Mr Ferreira said, which equates to about 75 million gallons.

He said the company is sparing no expense to clean up the spill.

“During the course of this event, Equinor has actually quadrupled their staff, they went from having a staff of about 50, now they have 200 persons plus on the ground involved in recovery and remediation,” he said, adding: “Those persons are housed in two offshore vessels that are on site. The equipment that has been mobilised, in addition to booms and skimmers, are 13 vacuum trucks, two helicopters and of course two boats. The ambient air there in order to protect the recovery team is being monitored for benzene. Benzene is a compound that is not safe to breathe. That’s being monitored by an external third party for independent verification.”