The oil spill discharged into the Pacific Ocean on Saturday from the Peruvian refinery of La Pampilla by the tsunami from the volcanic eruption of Tonga has spread over at least four kilometers of beaches and local authorities are demanding greater commitment from the Spanish Repsol with the cleanup.
Despite the fact that the La Pampilla Refinery, operated by Repsol, initially told the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office that the discharge had been about seven gallons of crude, this has already affected several beaches and protected natural areas in the municipality of Ventanilla, in the province of Callao, near Lima.
“It has gone from being a small spill to being a disaster of proportions,” the mayor of Ventanilla, Pedro Spadaro, told RPP Noticias on Tuesday while supervising the beaches in his district.
“There are four kilometers of absolutely black sea, there are dead animals that return to the shores, this is an attack against ecology,” Spadaro stressed.
The mayor regretted that Repsol had not invested enough effort in the lcleaning of the beaches and that the company also did not report the spill to the authorities last Saturday.
“In an irresponsible manner, nothing was communicated to the Municipality or to the police authority. This is serious damage, exposing vacationers,” said Spadaro, who also asked the Minister of the Environment, Rubén Ramírez, to evaluate the declaration of environmental emergency. in the zone.
discharge content
After Spadaro’s statements, the La Pampilla Refinery stated in a statement that “since the beginning of the incident, it has been carrying out remediation work on the coastline and beach cleaning in the district of Ventanilla.”
The company explained that the spill has been contained in the sea after deploying 1,500 meters of containment barriers, while six boats with crews of 50 people recover the oil with suction pumps and special absorbent material.
Meanwhile, on land, the refinery assured that it had arranged a group of 200 people divided into crews to clean the oil that reaches the Cavero, Bahía Blanca and Santa Rosa beaches.
affected nature reserve
The National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (Sernanp) reported in a statement that the oil spill has affected the National Reserve System of Guaneras Islands, Islets and Points and Islets of Fishermen and the reserved area of Ancón, a northern seaside resort from Lima.
The Sernanp deployed a personal brigade to assess the scope of the spill and is currently supporting the rescue and cleaning of the contaminated birds, mainly guano species such as the Peruvian pelican or the blue-footed booby.
For its part, the marine environmental organization Oceana quantified the affected area at 18,000 square kilometers of spilled crude oil, which is equivalent to two and a half times the surface of the National Stadium in Lima.
Prosecutor’s investigation
The Prosecutor’s Office specializing in Environmental Matters of Northwest Lima opened an investigation on Monday for environmental contamination against the La Pampilla Refinery.
Through the Public Ministry, prosecutor Ariel Tapia verified the oil spill from the freak swell on the coast of the districts of Santa Rosa and Ancón in Lima, and in Ventanilla in the neighboring province of Callao.
“This fact would have produced maritime contamination and the death of hydrobiological species and birds, the latter in the reserved zone of Ancón,” added the prosecutor’s office. Prosecutor Tapia declared that the high amount of oil in the sea, which is extracted by suction in polyethylene sleeves, differs from the preliminary information obtained on Sunday by the La Pampilla Refinery, estimated at seven gallons.
no tsunami warning
The environmental accident occurred on Saturday, when a ship was unloading oil at the precise moment it hit the Peruvian coast. tsunami wave caused on the other side of the Pacific Ocean by the volcanic eruption in Tonga, which raised the sea level by up to 70 centimeters in some places.
In addition to the oil spill, the waves caused by the volcano left two dead in Peru, the only country on the Pacific coast that did not issue any type of tsunami warning or warning to the thousands of bathers who flock to the beaches in the summer season.
EFE
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