Cleanup efforts are progressing steadily following a crude oil spill that occurred in Oistins, Christ Church on Friday.
Teams from the Barbados National Energy Company Limited (BNECL), the Ministry of Transport and Works (MTW), and the National Conservation Commission (NCC) have been actively working to remove contaminants and restore the affected area.
BNECL’s Group Health and Safety Manager, Damien Catlyn, said crews have been on site since 8 a.m. and confirmed systems did not fail overnight.
“We did a once over of the compound and discovered that we did not have any leakage overnight. In fact, the water is significantly clearer in the marine outfall,” Catlyn stated.
He explained that an interim dam was brought forward into the marine outfall to push containment material further in, allowing teams to begin concentrating on removing the contaminated sand.
“With assistance from the MTW and NCC, we’ve been removing some of the contaminated sand from the outfall,” he said. “We are continuing to flush the area. We’ve gone to our northern facility and started to flush down to remove all residues from the subterranean drains that lead to the marine outfall. It’s a repetitive process, but it has to be done.”
Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, commended the extensive cleanup efforts and the collaboration across agencies.
“This has been a significant push,” she noted. “I want to highlight and thank all the technical teams, emergency responders, and government officials who were on the ground to assist. The Government is committed to ensuring that the cleanup continues, and we are not finished until it has finished.”
She stressed that while progress has been made, the work is far from over and operations will continue over the next few days. (AM)2
