Tobago Correspondent
The days are counting down for the salvaging of the Gulfstream barge, which ran aground just off the coast of Cove in Tobago on February 7.
Up to yesterday, the team was vacuuming the remaining 12,000 barrels of bunker fuel from the vessel at the wreckage site.
Guardian Media was told that 15,000 barrels of bunker fuel had been vacuumed from the barge over the past three weeks. There are 21,000-gallon frac tanks on standby to contain the remaining fuel inside the vessel until it can be shipped to Trinidad for storage.
Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) director Allan Stewart said the containment stage is nearing the finish line. He said there is sometimes a challenge in getting the suctioned fuel off the island.
When the Cabo Star cargo vessel is loading at the Scarborough Port, there is no space for the oil tankers to pass through to offload the suctioned fuel to a barge to be sent to Trinidad.
“When that is happening, it means it is difficult for large tanker trucks to navigate in there. That is the slight disruption that happens. Therefore, we have to allow for that to happen and resume the operations,” he said.
As a result, the team has had to adjust their timelines.
Meanwhile, the island is wrapping up cleanup operations three months into the disaster, which damaged 15 kilometres of coastline.
Stewart said Tobago still has a lot of work to do.
“We have come to a point where we have brought things back under control. We saw the desolation of the response plan and the emergency operations centre has descended into yellow level but we continue to monitor and be on alert in the event of any incidents,” he said.
“What is left to be done is the salvaging, which will be done through the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries as well as the Maritime Division. We now move onto the waste management programme, seeing we have over 60,000 barrels of hydrocarbon liquid waste stored at the Studley Park landfill. That’s a major case to work with. We are still working to determine how well get rid of the soil and liquid waste.”