As Tobago nears the end of the second month of the oil spill ordeal, the island has been seeing significant progress over the past weeks with controlling the situation and containing the bunker fuel which leaked from an overturned vessel.
Tobago Emergency Management Agency director Allan Stewart said yesterday that despite the inroads made, the island still has a long way to go.
He said, “We have recognised certain aspects of the operation to be coming to an end. That’s where you have these end points being established.”
In the first month, officials handling the clean-up operations in Tobago had been able to contain the leak from the overturned barge, Gulfstream, which ran aground off the Coast of Cove on February 7.
For weeks, the vessel spewed fuel, devastating 15 kilometres of shoreline and ecosystem in that area.
Almost two months later, the clean-up continues.
Meanwhile, salvage experts are still on the island strategising ways to vacuum and contain the remaining oil before bringing the barge on land.
“It’s not decided fully as yet. They will put it onto a barge and ship it to Trinidad. That is one concept of operation. The reason we can’t go into details is because these are just concepts,” the TEMA director explained.
On Wednesday, Planning and Development Minister Pennelope Beckles-Robinson and a team of THA officials toured the area following discussions on a waste management plan for the collected oil and polluted water.