Oil spill: Private firm botches clean-up operation

CHENNAI: A private oil spill response firm appointed by the owners of the ship

Dawn Kanchipuram

has failed in its task to clean up the oil sludge accumulated on the Ennore shore, Indian Coast Guard officials said. The 11-day clean-up operation taken up by the coast guard was completed on Thursday. They mopped up about 20 tonnes per day, but specialised machinery employed by Alphamers cleared only 2.5 tonnes in seven days.

Coast guard commandant Pradeep B Mandal said, “It is the responsibility of

Darya Shipmanagement

, the ship owner, to remove oil sediments left behind on the sea wall at Ennore and some other areas. The Coast Guard, however, is still overseeing the work.“ Where machines failed, manpower prevailed, removing oil sludge at the seawall at Ennore in Ramakrishna Nagar Kuppam beach. The Coast Guard removed nearly 200 tonnes during the 11day clean-up operation that commenced two days after the oil spill occurred.

The operation started two days late, thanks to

Ennore port

officials who withheld data about the quantity of the spill. The port conceded that only 200 litres of oil spilled, as opposed to 200 tonnes that has been scooped up by the Coast Guard so far. Alphamers executive director D C Sekhar said, “We employed specialised skimmers equipped with low-capacity pumps. Oil accumulated at the Ennore coast was thick like a paste and could not be removed easily.“

Two submersible pumps employed by coast guard broke down on the first day of the clean-up operation and since then the pollution response team has been dependent on buckets to scoop out oil sludge from the Ennore shore. Metrowater super sucker trucks also tried but they too failed. Mandal said, “The super suckers sucked more seawater than oil. As the shoreline is shallow and filled with mud and stones, machines could not be used to good effect. We had to scoop out the sludge.“ The Coast Guard employed about a thousand volunteers.

Oil spilled 2 nautical miles (3.7km) off the Kamarajar Port near the Ennore shore and coagulated into a thick paste a day after LPGtanker BW Maple rammed Dawn Kanchipuram on January 28. A probe of the collision is underway.

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