Man­ag­ing di­rec­tor/CEO of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) Joth Singh says the au­thor­i­ty is con­sid­er­ing is­su­ing a no­tice of vi­o­la­tion to an au­to­mo­tive re­pair fa­cil­i­ty re­spon­si­ble for an oil spill in the Ca­roni Riv­er. On Oc­to­ber 2, the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) found oil in the riv­er. This led it to shut down the util­i­ty's Ca­roni Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant. WASA sub­se­quent­ly called in the EMA to in­ves­ti­gate the mat­ter.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Singh said the EMA de­ter­mined the sub­stance was waste oil which leaked from a bro­ken oil sump at the au­to­mo­tive re­pair fa­cil­i­ty. Singh said a crack in the fa­cil­i­ty's sump re­sult­ed in the waste oil leak­ing in­to the riv­er.

He said the oil was iso­lat­ed and then sucked off the sur­face of the riv­er. He said the treat­ment plant was shut down for the con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed wa­ter to pass with­out it be­ing processed as wa­ter for con­sump­tion. Singh said the EMA was con­sid­er­ing le­gal ac­tion against the fa­cil­i­ty and would take the nec­es­sary steps to do so af­ter con­sult­ing its le­gal de­part­ment. He said it was pos­si­ble the au­to­mo­tive fa­cil­i­ty would be fined.