A hole dug on private property near a BPL facility in North Andros shows what appears to be fuel or oil in the water. Residents of the area are concerned after a pipeline leak that the water table may be contaminated.
By LETRE SWEETING
Tribune Staff Reporter
lsweeting@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMAS Power and Light executives said they are addressing a diesel spill that happened at a Nicholls Town, North Andros power station nearly two years ago and has yet to be remediated.
BPL initially did not report the leak to the public and declined to discuss clean-up efforts in August because of ongoing litigation.
In August, the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection Director (DEPP) Rhianna Neely-Murphy said the department had been reviewing documents from BPL concerning the spill. She has not said whether BPL complied with the Environmental Planning and Protection Act.
“The diesel spill near the North Andros power station, that was a spill from a year or two ago,” chief executive officer Shevonn Cambridge said yesterday. “We started some remediation work there, and for various reasons, we were stopped. I think we’ve just gotten clearance to go back.
“We’re now in discussions with the landowner about accessing the property and making sure that we clear all of the requirements in order to do that in a responsible way.”
Mr Cambridge couldn’t specify a remediation timeline.
“The experts will have to go in and see the extent of the contamination, but from my understanding, a lot of it would have been actually recovered from the initial spill,” he said.
“So, what is there is some surface and some –– because of the high-water table –– you may have some sheen. There are some special ways of going about collecting that and disposing of it.”
Under the Environmental Planning and Protection Act, those who own, operate or control premises involving a pollutant spill must notify DEPP, implement an approved contingency plan and work to minimize the threat to human health or the environment.
In August, Randy Butler, the president and a director of Daran Corporation Holdings, a company suing BPL over the leak, expressed outrage at how long it took officials to address the issue, which some fear threatens the environment.
