Marabella residents breathed a little easier yesterday as clean-up operations continued in the Guaracara River to remove a thick slick of oil that had blackened the area.Petrotrin sent in teams to remove the oil that had leaked from its Pointe-a-Pierre refinery and polluted the river on Sunday.
Resident Glenis Quashie-Dalrymple, of Silk Cotton Street, Marabella, said her family experienced a difficult night on Monday as the pungent fumes from the river, which flowed behind her house, kept them awake."I did not sleep well last night (Monday) because the smell was high. Most of the night the kids were coughing and coughing and I had to get up and take some medication and relax before I could try to go to sleep," Quashie-Dalrymple said yesterday.
A sulphuric smell still hung in the air when the T&T Guardian visited the area yesterday.Quashie-Dalrymple said she was feeling much better than she did on Monday when she had to seek medical attention for respiratory problems."I am feeling much better. Today (yesterday) we are seeing a only a thin sheen of oil on the river that is remaining. Most of it run off now. But I did not see anyone cleaning," she said.
Yesterday, on the Silk Cotton Street side of the river the water was murky and there was little oil visible on the water's surface. However, on the Bayshore side of the river the air was heavy with the sulphuric smell of oil and thick patches of oil floated on the river's surface. Oil booms were tied at various points along the river to trap the oil and keep it from reaching the sea.The mangrove on the river bank was also stained with oil.
A Petrotrin tanker, with a suction hose, was parked on the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery side of the river extracting the oil from the water's surface.Yesterday, Centeno Street, Marabella, resident Ricky Hosein, 50, complained that he awoke to the strong scent of oil and when he walked out to his backyard he saw the river's surface awash with the black liquid.
"Today, they had some people in a boat there (behind his house) in the water collecting rubbish from the oil so they could suck it up into the tanker. My friend, who is a crab catcher, said he see oil inside the mangrove too and he cannot catch anything inside there," Hosein said.He expressed outrage that such spills kept happening in his community.
"I feel like this becoming a habit now with them. It happening too often now and you keep getting this kerosene smell all the time. I cooking as normal home, nobody come and tell me otherwise," Hosein said.Both Quashie-Dalrymple and Hosein, who live on opposite sides of the river, expressed disappointment that Petrotrin had not met with residents to reassure them or update them on the situation.
Petrotrin's statement
Yesterday, Petrotrin's Corporate Communications Manager Gillian Friday, in an e-mailed statement, said Petrotrin continued clean-up activities yesterday following the small leak from the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery on Sunday.
"While significant progress has been made in the clean-up exercise, containment booms remain in place in the Guaracara River and the company has also taken the additional precaution to install sorbent booms," she said in the statement. Friday assured that no oil had escaped into the sea.She said air quality tests were conducted in the surrounding community and those tests were continuing. Friday added that the company was grateful to all stakeholders for their support.