The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A Grand Bahama environmentalist is strongly refuting a recent update by Equinor of the oil spill clean-up in the affected pine forest in East Grand Bahama, saying that “it is far from being cleaned up.”

Joseph Darville, chairman of Save the Bays, was responding to a press statement issued about Equinor on Sunday, which reported that there has been almost complete rehabilitation of the land and forestry after the spill in 2019.

When contacted on yesterday, Mr Darville claims that is not the case.

“The area in my estimation is far from being cleaned up,” he said. “That is totally incorrect. There are areas still unclean that would take them, based upon the time they have spent up until now, another year before the cleanup is complete.

“For what they have done so far, I would like to commend my fellow Bahamians who have done a valiant and conscientious job trying to clean up the area inch by inch,” Mr Darville said.

The activist said when he visited the forest area about two week days ago with the parliamentary committee appointed to deal with natural resources, he found areas still saturated with oil.

“I took them into all the areas, including the wetlands. Because this is the dry season the wetland is basically kind of dried up, but if you lift up some of the pads of dried mud there is oil still saturating the area under those kind of muddy pads,” he said.

He also said a private-owned company is in litigation over the oil spill which also affected thousands of tons of aggregate in that area.

Mr Darville indicated that mounds of aggregate about 55ft to 60ft high, including the machinery, are still saturated with oil.

“So, I can’t see how they can say, ‘well, it is nearly cleaned up.’ It is far from being nearly cleaned up,” he stated.

“If you pass by the company and have a casual look, you may think so. But, you got to go deep into that forest and examine all the areas that were saturated with oil on the ground.”

In terms of the company’s plans to recap the tanks, Mr Darville said that the caps were initially made to withstand 140-knot winds.

He stated that the 140-knot wind that decapitated the tanks came from the south and blew the oil into the north and saturated the forest area, about one mile by three miles.

He said if the caps had been blown off when the north wind, which came as tornado activity between 180 and 200mph of winds, the oil spill would have affected the ocean.

“If this had happened…then our ocean would have been an incredible disaster. But, on the other hand it has devastated thousands of acres of our pristine forests, and so all this has to be taken into consideration.”

Mr Darville stressed that if Equinor is going to recap those tanks, “they must have the common sense to know they must be made to withstand over 200 mph winds for those caps to remain on, if they are going to continue to utilise that facility as a transshipment of crude oil.”

Equinor has said the tanks will be constructed to withstand this level of wind.

The 55,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled in September 2019 during Hurricane Dorian.

Equinor leaders paid a courtesy call on Attorney General Carl Bethel and Minister of the Environment and Housing Romauld Ferriera on March 18.

Mr Darville said company officials have many issues left to address.

“I have not seen any, not one of the top environmental people in that area,” Mr Darville said. “I been out there dozens of times, and so for them to simply concentrate on or indicate how much millions were spent or whatever they are going to spend on cleaning up, is irrelevant.

“If they have to spend $400m that’s their expense, but what has happened to the compensation that has to be made to our people for the catastrophic damage of our environment and our forest? That is the thing they should have addressed.”

A statement from Bahamas Information Services on Sunday said Equinor has invested more than $200 million and trained Grand Bahama residents to clean up the affected area, adding that “over the past year, there has been almost complete rehabilitation of such land and forestry.”

The statement said Equinor plans to reconstruct fuel storage tanks in full compliance with Bahamian environment laws and regulations to withstand hurricane winds of more than 200 mph. The release said 150 to 300 workers will be engaged during the reconstruction.